A Digital Fantasy
by Sakura Cherry Blossom1
Summary: UPDATED! The Digidestined get sucked into a fantasy world while answering a distress call from Gennai. What kind of mayhem will ensue? Read and find out. :
1. An Ordinary Day Turned to Madness

A Digital Fantasy  
  
Summary: The Digidestined get sucked into a fantasy world while answering a distress call from Gennai. What kind of mayhem will ensue? Read and find out. :)  
  
Authors Note: I wrote this back in July of 2003 so, if there are any similarities with another one it is pure coincidence. This is technically my second attempt at a humor fic. My first attempt is still in the 'need to figure out what went wrong' pile. ;) In case you can't tell by now I love fantasy stuff so, you'll be seeing a lot of this in the future. Anyway, enough of my endless rambling. Please read and review. All flames please exit the building. Thank you.  
  
Yolie: Sakura Cherry Blossom doesn't own us. This story is a good reflection of why the Digimon people would be crazy to hand over the rights to her.  
  
Chapter 1: An ordinary day turned to madness.  
  
"Hey guys. I just got an email from Gennai. He needs to talk to all of us." Davis said joining the others at the park.  
  
"Even the older digidestined?" Yolie questioned.  
  
"Yeah." Davis replied.  
  
"O.K. I'll call Izzy and let him know." Yolie stated.  
  
Within one hour, all twelve digidestined were assembled in the Digital World. They followed the signal Gennai had left. When they arrived, they found a small projector showing an image of himself.  
  
"Digidestined...trouble...need your help...must find...fortress...locate it...everything will make sense."  
  
"Looks like the transmission wasn't good." Izzy stated. Gennai did manage to transmit the coordinates into my computer before the signal was lost."  
  
With Izzy leading the way, they made it to the fortress in about two hours.  
  
"Light."  
  
"Child of Light."  
  
"Free from darkness."  
  
"Must be destroyed."  
  
"Do you guys hear that?" Kari asked the others.  
  
"Yeah." Ken said. "I think it's coming from the building." He continued, pointing at a large structure.  
  
They entered the building and the voices became clearer. As they neared the source they realized the voices were coming from one person. In the center of the room was a holographic image of a beautiful woman. She had long pink hair and green eyes. She wore a light blue dress with white, iridescent wings coming from her back.  
  
"Light...help...disaster...evil..."  
  
"What are you talking about?" Tai asked.  
  
"Sorry...transmission...must be...down..."  
  
"Lets see if this helps." Izzy said as he did something on his computer.  
  
"Thank you. I'm the Fairy of the Wood. I was sent here to help you. Gennai can no longer help you. He has been corrupted by an evil creature which is trying to take over my world. My world is another universe like the Digital World. The Digital World is the only world directly connected to the real world. Many worlds plug into the Digital World in order to reach the Real World. This evil creature is attempting to do that. He has corrupted Gennai and captured many Digimon to overthrow the balance in my world. My half sister is one of the creatures of my world that is under his control. She is the Fairy of the Wind. Her mission is to destroy you, but one of you can change her back to a good creature. She is a mix of all magical creatures. Our mother is a Fairy, but her father is an Elf/Pixie hybrid. His mother was a Nymph also. Thus my half sister has them all.  
  
"Now kids, here's a little lesson in what half siblings are. T.K and Matt can help me clear this up. You start with a mommy and a daddy. One day they decide to have a baby. That kid is their own flesh and blood. Now mommy and daddy can't stand each other so, they get divorced. Mommy gets the baby. Daddy decides he likes the cute girl at the bar. The two get married and have a baby. Now mommy and daddy's real baby and daddy and his new wife's baby are half siblings. Like me and my sister. Now if Mommy re-marries and her new husband and she have a baby that would also be the half sibling of her first child. In the case of Matt and T.K., they were born to both their mommy and daddy. Mammy and daddy get divorced. Mommy gets T.K. and daddy gets Matt. The two are real brothers. Got it.  
  
"Anyway, because this evil creature is trying to take over my world he has enlisted the help of some Digimon. I don't know which ones they are, but they may very well be your Digimon partners. Trust your instincts and follow your hearts. It's up to you Children of Courage, Friendship, Love, Sincerity, Knowledge, Reliability, Light, Hope, and Kindness. Though you cannot trust everyone, there are some who you can trust. You'll know who they are when you see them. May you all have a safe journey." She started chanting something in what seemed like Elvish before disappearing.  
  
"Uh guys. I don't think we're in the Digital World anymore," Tai observed.  
  
"I have to agree," Sora replied as everyone looked around.  
  
"One. Two. Three. Hop with me," a gnome like creature chanted as he danced by the group.  
  
In a puff of smoke, Mimi turned into a white rabbit.  
  
"This is interesting," T.K. mused.  
  
"No it's not! Get back here you evil little gnome!" Mimi fumed.  
  
The gnome, however, was too fast for Mimi and got away.  
  
"Don't worry Mimi. Everything will be all right," Matt comforted.  
  
"How can you say that. I'm a rabbit!" Mimi exclaimed. "How is THIS all right?"  
  
"It's not that bad," Matt said, trying a different approach. Mimi just glared at him. "I'm serious. You look good no matter what you are."  
  
"Even if I was some ugly old troll?" Mimi asked.  
  
"Even if you were an ugly old troll," Matt replied.  
  
"Only Matt would say that," Davis whispered to Yolie.  
  
"Come on Meems. You're beautiful, smart, caring, adorable, and a great friend. I can't be thankful enough that I got the chance to know you. What's more you helped me become a better person. I'd still like you if you stayed a rabbit for the rest of your life."  
  
"You Mean it?"  
  
"With all my heart."  
  
"Thanks, Matt."  
  
With that, and another puff of smoke, Mimi was turned back into her old self.  
  
"Gag me with a pitch fork," Davis stated. "They should put warnings up that say 'Extreme mushiness ahead. Please take an air sick bag.'"  
  
Yolie pulled out a mallet and smacked Davis with it, knocking him out.  
  
"Yolie, where'd you get the mallet?" Kari asked her friend.  
  
"I borrowed it from Sakura's friend Chiharu," Yolie replied.  
  
"Oh," Kari said.  
  
The Digidestined realized they were on a trail and after a lot of arguing decided to flip a coin. The resulting decision was to go the direction the gnome had gone. They walked the rest of the day, not finding any sign of life at all, until the sun began to set.  
  
"Hey guys. I think there's a village up ahead," Joe told them.  
  
"I see it too," Cody agreed.  
  
The village ended up being further away then they thought. Needless to say, they were all very exhausted when they finally reached it. Once there, they went in search of a place to stay for the night. They figured they would have better chances if they split up, so they divided into the two teams. However, they didn't seem to be having much success.  
  
"I only have room for one, but you're welcome to stay," A red haired village girl said taking T.K.s hand.  
  
"I think we'll keep looking," Kari stated, grabbing T.K.s other hand and leading him away.  
  
"I've got some room, but you'll have to sleep in the barn," A brunette man told them.  
  
Mimi wrinkled her nose at the smell. "Are you serious? Let my beauty sleep with the animals? I think not!"  
  
"I've got plenty of room for all of you. All I ask is if I can get the name of this incredibly handsome young man," A blonde hared girl informed.  
  
Both Kari and Yolie got defensive of T.K. and Ken. She was only the tenth village girl who had hit on them. The blonde grabbed Davis' hand. "So, What's your name? Mine's Alanna. You seem so much nicer than all the other guys who always hit on me."  
  
"Um. My names Davis," He stated.  
  
"What a great name," Alanna said. "Please come in."  
  
They entered her house and immediately noticed how nice and spacious it was.  
  
"It didn't look this big from the outside," Cody mused.  
  
"My uncle built it that way on purpose," Alanna replied. "When I was little my family was very wealthy and we wanted to keep it a secret, because people would try and kill you for your money. Sadly, they all became greedy and ended up squandering all their money. My uncle built this house as a safe house to hide my family from those who wanted to collect unpaid debts from them. Each and every one of them were killed when they couldn't make payments. I'm the only one left alive. I've kept this house a secret for years. I only rent out the rooms to cute young travelers who need a place to stay for the night."  
  
"Alanna, I'm curious. How old are you?" Davis asked. Yolie smacked him on the head. "Ow! Yolie!"  
  
"It's not polite to ask a woman her age," Yolie explained.  
  
"It's all right," Alanna replied. "I'm 14."  
  
"Hey that's the same age as me. T.K. and Kari are also 14. Yolie and Ken are 15 and Cody is 13," Davis told her.  
  
Yolie smacked Davis on the back of the head. "That was for telling her my age without asking permission."  
  
"Ow," Davis muttered while rubbing his head.  
  
"Oh, poor baby. Let's go put some ice on that," Alanna soothed leading Davis towards another room.  
  
"Since when does Davis get a good looking girl?" Ken asked.  
  
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that Ichijouji." Yolie stated.  
  
"What?" Ken asked.  
  
"If you don't know, I'm not going to tell you," Yolie huffed.

&&&&&&&&&

The next day all the Digidestined met up at the outskirts of the village just like they planned the day before. Davis looked like the luckiest guy in the world while everyone else had either looks of discomfort or annoyance. Yolie wouldn't speak to Ken and he was utterly clueless as to what he did. No one talked as they made their way along the path. So far this journey had the makings of something weird.  
  
It was almost lunch time when they came to a fork in the road. They were tired and hungry so, they decided to sit under the shade of an apple tree while they figured out how to get food. It didn't take long to realize that these were no ordinary apple trees. On the left side, of the path, the trees had blue apples in them. On the right side, the trees had pink apples in them.  
  
"Now this is different," Sora said looking over the apple trees.  
  
"The question is, which ones are edible? Provided any of them are," Tai added.  
  
"I'm glad you asked, young man," A dwarf like creature said, appearing out of nowhere.  
  
"What is it with people and creatures just popping up out of no where?" Sora asked.  
  
"You got me," Joe responded.  
  
"Um, mister dwarf, do you know which one of these apples we can eat?" Izzy asked.  
  
"Yes I certainly do. The names Bob," The dwarf named Bob told them.  
  
"Who names a dwarf Bob?" Yolie wondered.  
  
"Who knows," Kari replied.  
  
"I'm more than willing to tell you which apples are edible, but you have to solve a riddle to find out. Once you've solved the riddle, and know which apples you can eat, you will also know which direction to go."  
  
"All right. Give us the riddle," Davis told the dwarf.  
  
"Pink is yummy, but blue is poison. Roses are red and violets are blue. If I were hungry, I'd eat you. What color am I?" Bob asked them.  
  
Everyone thought through the riddle trying to figure it out, but they all seemed baffled. Even Izzy couldn't figure it out.  
  
"I'll give you an extra hint," Bob stated. "The person who can guess my riddle has the initials that are the same as my real name."  
  
"That's not a hint! That's another riddle you stupid dwarf!" Yolie exclaimed.  
  
"I got it," T.K. said. "The answer is red. Red is safe but blue is poison. Blue and red make pink because there is no color to a magic apple. The actual color of the blue apples are white which everyone knows is poison. Pink is poison also because there isn't enough of the red apple to counteract the poisoned white apple. It was a trick question. The red apples are straight ahead where the real trail lies hidden."  
  
Everyone looked at T.K. in disbelief.  
  
"Stupid, stupid boy! How dare you solve the riddle! Curse you! Curse you! Fine! What's my real name?" Bob fumed.  
  
"Total Trickster," T.K. replied nonchalantly.  
  
"Meddling boy! The White Witch will be after you!" Bob then burst into flames.  
  
"That was different," Tai stated as a new path appeared in front of them.  
  
Sure enough, there were apples in the trees by the new path. They each ate their fill and took a much needed rest. Just when they were about to continue on their way, something happened that delayed them.  
  
"Just try to catch me you overgrown Jurassic nightmare!" A young woman in a green shirt and pants yelled.  
  
"Nova Blast!" The dinosaur yelled firing it's attack of fire.  
  
"Ha ha you missed me," She teased sticking her tongue out.  
  
She ran past the Digidestined and only noticed them when she turned to see where her attacker was. The dinosaur soon came into view. Tai recognized it immediately as Greymon. They didn't have much time to re-act as Greymon fired another Nova Blast.  
  
"Hit the ground!" The girl being chased by Greymon yelled.  
  
Everyone did as told and the blast went over their heads. When they got back on their feet, Tai noticed Greymons eyes were glowing red.  
  
"I know what you're thinking," the girl told Tai, "but forget him. Your Digimon belongs to the dark master now. There's only one way to help him and I'll need you to stand back." She turned her back on Greymon and looked at the Digidestined. "Inoue! Front and center!" The girl commanded. Yolie complied and stood in front of the girl. The girl circled Yolie four times before reaching up and yanking a strand of hair from Yolies' head.  
  
"Ouch!" Yolie exclaimed. "You could warn me."  
  
The girl ignored Yolie as she chanted something in a weird sing-song dialect. The strand of Yolie's hair began to glow red and took the shape of an arrow. The girl retrieved her bow and strung the arrow. She pulled the bow back and took aim at Greymon.  
  
"Creature of Courage, corrupted by evil. Die in the light with this evil form. Be reborn in the moonlight, good as new. With the arrow of a Digidestined I kill your curse!" The girl chanted then released the arrow. It sang through the air and hit Greymon between the eyes, cracking his mask. The Digimon turned into black smoke and evaporated into thin air.  
  
"It's a pleasure to meet you Digidestined. I'm Regina Hood," The girl introduced.  
  
"Don't you mean Robin Hood?" Davis questioned.  
  
"Shut up moron! No one dares to say my brothers name unless they want the White Witch or the Fire Banshee to hear them. Now good day," The girl retorted before running off into the woods.  
  
"Somebody pinch me. I really want to wake up from this dream," Cody said.  
  
Everyone agreed with Cody before continuing on the path before them. They walked for several hours before coming to a dead end. In front of them was a huge brick wall.  
  
"How do we get over this?" Matt questioned.  
  
"Maybe we go around," Ken supplied.  
  
"One problem," Izzy stated. "The wall continues in either direction for hundreds of miles." Everyone looked at him with question marks over their heads. "I don't know how I know." Izzy answered their unasked question.  
  
"Maybe we are supposed to wait until some weird creature comes along and gives us a riddle or something." Sora said leaning against the wall.  
  
No sooner did her back touch the wall then she fell backwards through it. She yelped as she fell and Tai reached for her hand. Tai grabbed Sora's hand only to be pulled in with her. After the two disappeared the wall became solid again. Inside the wall, Tai and Sora looked around to find white walls that had been splattered with different colored paint. At least they hoped it was paint.  
  
"Greetings fellow travelers," The walls spoke. "I'm the Fire Banshee's sister, Mud. Listen carefully and I won't give you over to her."

Kiss me once: I'll be your friend. 

Kiss me twice: I love you.

Kiss me thrice: I love you still.

Kiss me four: I cheated on you.

Kiss me five: Bury me dead.

There was silence as Tai and Sora looked at each other confused.  
  
"What are we supposed to do?" Tai asked Sora.  
  
"I haven't a clue," Sora replied.  
  
"Do they want us to kiss or something?"  
  
"I wish I knew," Sora sighed. Secretly she was hopping that Tai would someday kiss her, but only if it wouldn't ruin their friendship.  
  
Tai looked around the room for a sign or something to figure this strange place out. He turned back to Sora who shrugged.  
  
"The only thing I can figure is they want us to kiss," Tai stated. He looked at Sora who didn't seem to protest.  
  
Tai looked into Sora's eyes. She seemed to be telling him that she'd go along with anything he did. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Slowly their lips inched closer until they made contact. As soon as they realized what had happened, they broke apart.  
  
"WUSS!" The voice bellowed. "Ha! I can do better than one measly kiss."  
  
"Really?" Tai retorted. "Then maybe you should have let me finish."  
  
Tai took Sora and bent her over backwards before kissing her passionately. Sora returned the kiss, which lasted much longer than the first time. When they broke apart, the wall disappeared and they were in front of their friends again. The look on the others faces made Tai and Sora realize what kind of position they were in. Tai let go, dropping Sora who didn't seem to mind. Their faces went neon red.  
  
"So, um the path is this way right?" Sora stated, getting up and heading off on the path again.  
  
"Tai and Sora sitting in a tree. K...I..." Davis trailed off after seeing the look on Tai's face. "I think I'd like to live to see my next birthday," Davis finished joining Sora on the path.  
  
The rest of the Digidestined soon followed and they continued on their journey. It was getting dark when they realized they didn't have a place to stay for the night. The path kept on going, deep into a dark forest. The sign at the edge of the forest read:  
  
**Beware! He who enters the Forest of the Unicorns at night, takes their life into their hands. Not even the White Witch is foolish enough to enter at night.**

"So, I guess we sleep here tonight," Kari stated.  
  
Everyone agreed. The boys were making a campfire and deciding on who would stay as a lookout, while the girls figured out where they would sleep. They all agreed they needed to stay near the path so, they cleared a space by it to sleep. Food was scavenged and soon everyone was full and ready for bed. Cody was in charge of the first shift, because he was the youngest. The boys had decided that they would take turns in order of youngest to oldest. Cody would start and Joe would finish. (A.N.: I just picked Joe randomly 'cause I have no idea who's the oldest.)  
  
Everyone slept soundly and the lookouts didn't have any problems. That is until it was Davis' turn. Call it pure luck or the fact that he makes an easy target or whatever, but something made sure Davis knew he wasn't alone. Every time Davis looked into the fire, he saw a woman's face looking back at him. At first Davis just dismissed it as a hallucination. However, the fire roared to life when the woman's face smiled wickedly at Davis. Without warning, she began to wail piercingly, as Davis covered his ears. He looked around only to find everyone still sound asleep. The face stopped wailing and laughed at Davis.  
  
"Silly fool. Only you can hear me. Tonight's your lucky night boy. I've come for your soul!" With that the fire began to grow until it took the shape of a woman. She towered over Davis who was still seated on the ground.  
  
Davis grabbed the nearest person, who happened to be Cody, and tried to wake him up. Cody slowly opened his eyes and looked sleepily at Davis.  
  
"What the heck is wrong? Can't a guy get some sleep?" Cody questioned Davis.  
  
"I've got a huge problem here. There's this woman, who formed herself out of the flames. I think she wants me dead or something," Davis told Cody. By now Davis was freaking out.  
  
"That's nice Davis. I'm sure the two of you will be happy together. Good night," Cody went back to sleep amongst Davis' protests.  
  
Davis tried everyone, but they all thought he was crazy and no one could see the woman except Davis.  
  
"You can call me the Fire Banshee," The woman told Davis. "Prepare to die boy because I've come for your soul!"  
  
Davis' screams echoed through the night. A group of bats took flight, startled by the noise. The next day, everyone woke fully rested and ready for the day. Joe was just extinguishing the fire when Mimi returned with fresh fruit for breakfast. Everyone ate their fill and were ready to deal with the forest when Izzy noticed Davis wasn't around.  
  
"Um...has anyone seen Davis?" Izzy asked the group.  
  
Everyone looked at each other realizing that no one had seen him.  
  
"I thought it was awfully strange that he was missing when I took my shift as night watch," Ken stated. "After waking me up, acting all scared, I just shrugged it off as Davis playing a joke or something."  
  
The Digidestined spread out to look for him. After turning up nothing, they decided it was best to continue on their quest. Surely Davis would turn up eventually. They followed the path into the forest. Tai was in the lead while Sora brought up the rear. After the incident with the wall, neither of them had spoken to each other. They were thoroughly embarrassed at what their friends had seen. Around lunch time, the group stopped to rest. They needed to make each pit stop quick because they needed to get out of the forest before nightfall. No one knew how long the forest was so they had to get out fast. However, that seemed to be easier said than done. Joe noted that the forest was getting darker and it was getting late at night. Soon the forest was pitch black, and you could only see a little here and there.  
  
That's when Sora spotted it. A beautiful and majestic creature standing off of the path. It's cinnamon skin radiated light and it's mane and tail shone like spun gold. It's hoofs were crystal clear as was the horn atop it's head. It's blue eyes pierced the darkness. It whinnied and stamped a foot as if beckoning the red head to come closer. Transfixed, Sora found herself wandering off the path and towards the unicorn.  
  
T.K. was the first to notice that Sora had left the path. Kari and he had been in the back of the group with Sora. T.K. stopped to watch where Sora was going. He called out her name, which got everyone's attention. They all stopped on the path as Sora reached the unicorn. Sora reached a hand up to touch it's mane. As soon as her hand made contact a blue light, from the unicorns horn, burst into hundreds of glittering fragments. The glitter descended on Sora and a blue light enveloped her. When the light faded, her clothes were replaced with those of a Queen. Everyone gasped.  
  
"I see you have found my home." A beautiful woman said. She appeared out of nowhere and stood beside the cinnamon unicorn. Her clothes were red and gold. The neckline was low cut and her long sleeves flared out at the ends, extending to the ground. She had long strawberry blonde hair that was pulled back, on either side, to reveal a set of pointed ears. Her eyes were a lavender color. "I can see that you've also met my horse, Tranquillity. She's a pure bread unicorn. Her horn is magical and shows, anyone who touches her, what they really are in this world. Young travelers, sent by my dearest friend, I welcome you to the Forest of the Unicorns. My name is Faith and this is the Elf Sanctuary. My friend, The Fairy of the Wood, told me to expect you. I'm sure you are very tired from your journey so, let me offer you a place to rest. Once we reach my place, we can continue our conversation."  
  
The others agreed and left the path to follow Faith. They walked for what seemed like forever, but was really only five minutes. Before their eyes a village began to form. It seemed as if the buildings were popping up from the ground. Faith lead them to the biggest of the buildings which resembled a castle. While Tranquillity grazed on the grass outside, the Digidestined followed Faith inside. Faith instructed them to find seats at an ornate table in the center of the room.  
  
"Now that we have some privacy, I can explain. Long ago our world was one of peace, beauty, and life. No one ever fought and we got along well. One day something happened that would change all of that. One of the Wizards had become power hungry and slowly began to turn against everything we strive for. Before long this world had been corrupted. Evil was allowed to run free and the result is the world you see before you. However, the Wizard was not satisfied with what power he had. He wanted more so, he set out to find a way to gain more power. It was then that he discovered the Digital World. All creatures, that still had a good heart, longed to stop this evil Wizard. In their search for a solution to the problem, they discovered a legend. Twelve travelers would come to us from a foreign world. In their world they are ordinary individuals. In our world they command our respect. Each of you has a special quality, which the Digital World translated into crests. Here your unique qualities are translated into a rank or title." Faith paused as she pulled an object off the shelf next to her. She placed, the cloth covered item, in the center of the table and removed the cloth. A crystal clear unicorn horn was revealed. It shone with a blue tint.  
  
"Sora, the bearer of Love, has already touched a unicorn that had a horn similar to this. She was revealed to be the Queen. She commands the respect of all who are in her presence, but is quick to forbid them to display their respect by bowing or calling her by a noble title. She is humble and loved by all who know her. A young would-be-king and the Lord of a neighboring kingdom have often fought for her hand. In the end the Prince would win out and the Lord would find a lady of his own.  
  
"In a clockwise order, I would like you all to touch the unicorn horn. This is an important step in your journey. Joe, if you would start."  
  
Joe did as told and touched the horn. His clothes were replaced with simple peasant clothing. He had a heavy bag slung over one shoulder.  
  
"Joe, you are the reliable and dependent traveling medic. Everyone is glad to see you and you have no enemies."  
  
Cody touched the horn next. His clothes were changed to simple peasant clothing as well. The only exception was a huge sword strapped to his back.  
  
"Cody, you are the brave warrior. You can be relied upon in a battle and you have a wisdom beyond your years."  
  
Tai was next. He touched the horn and his clothes were replaced with that of a King. Everyone gasped.  
  
"Tai, you are the young would-be-king who stole the heart of the young Princess. Upon your fathers passing, you received the crown and made her a Queen."  
  
Both Tai and Sora blushed as Izzy touched the horn. His clothes were replaced with fancy Wizards robes.  
  
"Izzy, you are a noble Wizard. Everyone respects you and seeks out your wisdom."  
  
Matt went next. As soon as he touched the horn, his clothes changed to that of a Lord.  
  
"Matt, you are the Lord who fought for the Princess' affections. The whole time you were pinning over the Princess, you forgot to see the beautiful girl who practically threw herself at you."  
  
Mimi went next. After touching the horn, her clothes changed to that of a Lady.  
  
"Mimi, ever since you saw the handsome Lord, you fell in love. Try as you might, you just could not get his attention. Only after he lost the beautiful Princess, did he even look at you."  
  
Ken followed Mimi and when he touched the horn, his clothes changed to that of a Knight.  
  
"Ken, you are a Knight that once served the evil Wizard. You finally escaped his evil influence, fearing you could never fit in. You encountered a beautiful peasant girl who never looked at who were or used to be. Instead she saw your pure heart and offered you something you never thought you would find. Love."  
  
T.K. was next. When he touched the horn, his clothes were altered to that of a Knight as well.  
  
"T.K., you are the lonely or wandering Knight. You travel from place to place never really sure where you belong. On one of your travels you encounter a heavenly creature you would never forget."  
  
The next person was Yolie. When she touched the horn her clothes were changed to that of a lowly peasant.  
  
"Yolie, you are a poor peasant. Your father and brothers slave all day in the fields while your sisters, your mother and you care for the horses and sell your goods at the market. During one of your trips to the market, you encountered a handsome young stranger. He seemed afraid and alone. Everyone was scared of him and kept their distance. You only saw his heart. Eventually, you taught him the true meaning of life and more importantly how to love."  
  
Kari was last. She touched the horn and her clothes were replaced with those as exquisite as Faiths'. Her hair was pulled back to reveal that her ears were now pointed and two, pink, iridescent wings grew out of her back.  
  
"Kari, you are known to us as the Fairy of the Light. You are the only person the evil Wizard fears. You live in semi-solitude. Your friends are those who treat you kindly and with respect. According to your people, it is forbidden for Fairies to fall in love, much less marry a human. However, a young Knight happened to stumbled upon your dwelling in the forest. In an instant you had fallen in love with him and he had fallen in love with you. It was in that moment you gave up your immortality for him.  
  
"There is one member of your group who is missing. The Fire Banshee is to blame. She has stolen away the soul of young Davis Motomiya. In our world his is known as the Court Jester or comic relief. Why? It's his nature. However, that is only his guise. Deep down he is really a Knight, loyal only to the King, who spies on the Kings enemies. The Fire Banshee knows this. That is why she has taken him. Together you can find him and restore his soul. Each of you must learn to adapt to your new roles. Two of you have magic, which will need to be mastered. The others must learn to use their weapons of choice. Swords, bows and arrows, etc. You will spend the night here before continuing on you journey."  
  
With that, Faith beckoned them to follow her as she showed them to their rooms. Ken and Yolie had rooms next to each other with a door in- between. Matt and Mimi had the same set up as did Kari and T.K. When they got to Sora and Tai's room, the two quickly realized they were in a whole different game. A large suite stood in front of them. A suite with one bed the two were supposed to share. Obviously, in this world, they were already married. The two exchanged glances before entering the room. This was going to be a long night.  
  
Authors Note: I hope you liked it. I didn't mean to pick on any one character, they just seemed to fit the situation well. I also did not mean to Davis bash. His personality just made it easy sometimes. Anyway, please review. I know you want to. ;) 


	2. A Better Understanding Or More Confusion...

Authors Note: Here's chapter 2. I haven't gotten any reviews yet, but I can't expect people to review the first chapter. I hope you like it. It's my idea of a humor fic with a plot, sort of. I tend to be a little weird at times, so this is a direct result of that. Anyway, on with the story.  
  
Disclaimer: I in no way own Digimon and there's probably a good reason for that. This fic being one of them.  
  
Chapter 2: A Better Understanding Or More Confusion?

Yolie was about to get ready for bed when there was a knock on the door which separated her room from Ken's. She opened the door to see what he wanted.  
  
"Yolie, would it be all right if we talked?" Ken asked fidgeting.  
  
Yolie was surprised. Ken looked either nervous or like he had something important on his mind. "Sure Ken. Come on in," Yolie replied.  
  
"Thanks," Ken said sitting on Yolie's bed.  
  
"So, um, what did you want to talk about?" Yolie inquired as she sat next to him. She was almost certain it was about their new roles here. He'd probably tell her that he didn't feel for her the way he was portrayed in this world.  
  
"Well, everything really. To be honest I don't really have a friend that I feel I can be open with and just talk to. You know someone to share your problems with or figure out life with," Ken began.  
  
"I'm sorry you feel that way, Ken. I hope you realize that we are all your friends and will be there if you ever need to vent. Like now," Yolie told him. She began to relax after hearing his words.  
  
"I appreciate that Yolie. I have to admit this whole adventure or whatever, is getting a bit weird. It's bad enough we have this journey to go on, in which no one really knows what they are doing. Now I feel like I've let the team down."  
  
"What do you mean?" Yolie probed looking at his downcast face.  
  
"Well, Davis going missing, for example. I feel like I should have tried harder to find him that night. Or better yet, I should have realized that something was wrong when he wasn't around."  
  
"Look Ken, you didn't let us down because you didn't try to find Davis. Besides it's not your fault. It could have been any one of you who took the shift after Davis and decided he was just being weird by not being around. Please don't blame yourself Ken." Yolie placed a hand over his which caused him to look up at her.  
  
For an instant, their eyes locked. "No offense Yolie, but I'm not sure I'm ready for us to be boyfriend and girlfriend," Ken stated.  
  
"Don't worry. We'll start by being friends, like T.K. and Kari. If it happens it happens. If it doesn't that's all right too," Yolie responded. She tried real hard to hide her true feelings.  
  
It was no secret that Yolie had a crush on Ken for several years. Everyone, except for Ken, seemed to know it. Yolie was thankful Ken didn't seem to know. The violet haired girl knew that if she ever wanted something to happen between her and Ken she needed to put her crush aside and start thinking of Ken as a friend. Besides, Ken needed a friend more than he needed a girlfriend. Yolie saw the look on Ken's face and decided they needed a subject change. She directed the conversation to their fellow Digidestined and the predicaments they were in.  
  
&&&  
  
"Now what do we do?" Sora asked as she looked at the suite. "We may be married in this world, but we sure aren't in ours and I can tell you I am far from being ready to get married."  
  
"I agree. Since sleeping in the same bed is out of the question, Sora you take the bed and I'll take the couch," Tai informed.  
  
"Not that I'm objecting, but what do we say if someone comes in and sees you on the couch?" Sora inquired.  
  
"We simply tell them that I prefer to sleep here," Tai responded.  
  
The two got ready for bed, in separate areas of the suite, and Sora crawled into the big bed. She noted that it was so big, Tai could sleep in it with her and she'd never notice. She sighed. Why did things have to get so complicated. Sora was perfectly fine with Tai as a best friend, then the universe had to turn against them and make things complicated. "Why did this stupid world have to make us kiss?" Sora pondered. "Things weren't nearly as complicated before, but didn't I say I liked the kiss? Then why can't the two of us get along the way we did before? Simple. You've finally realized your true feelings for each other," A voice inside Sora's head answered her.  
  
Sora stole a glance at Tai, asleep on the couch. Was the voice inside her head right? Did she really want something more than a friendship with Tai? She had the crest of Love and yet couldn't even figure out her own love life. Her gaze drifted towards the ceiling. Did she love Tai? Ever since their kiss, Sora had asked herself that question numerous times. If the answer was yes, why then did she start avoiding him? The answer suddenly became obvious. She was embarrassed that she had been caught in a private moment with Tai, by their friends. It had nothing to do with their feelings. Sora had even kissed Tai back, expressing the fact that she enjoyed the sensation. As all the pieces began to fall into place, Sora realized what she must do. Finally, she was able to sleep and closed her eyes, drifting off into a wonderful sleep.  
  
&&&  
  
In another part of the castle, two others were finding it hard to sleep. T.K. was pondering the idea of Kari being his girlfriend here while Kari was pondering the whole "Fairy of the Light" thing and also T.K. being her boyfriend. Both of them had always wanted something more than friendship with each other, but were to afraid to voice that with one another. As if finding out their feelings wasn't bad enough, they also had the concept of being in another world to deal with. "How are we ever going to get out of here?" Kari thought. "Better yet, how are we supposed to help save this world and what good does it do to find out we are Kings and Fairies and Knights? It just doesn't make sense to me. To top it all of, I not only have to deal with learning how to use magic, I also have to deal with T.K. and me being an item. Not that I don't like him or haven't thought of taking our friendship to the next level, it's just that he's my best friend. In a way it's weird. Wonderful, but weird."  
  
&&&  
  
"That's it! I don't care how you got into my room, but your annoying snoring has to stop Tai!" Kari yelled. She was about to grab a pillow when she looked around. Now fully awake, she noticed that they were no longer in the posh castle, but outside in the forest. "What the heck? Am I dreaming?" Kari asked.  
  
"Not unless we're all dreaming the same thing," Matt replied. He held a bucket of water in his hands and dumped it onto Tai's head. "That takes care of that annoying racket."  
  
"What the...all right, who threw me in the lake?" Tai asked waking up.  
  
"No one threw you in the lake. Someone had to find a way to thank you for the wonderful alarm clock you make at 3 A.M.!" Mimi retorted. She rolled over in her sleeping bag and attempted to go back to sleep.  
  
"I'm confused," Yolie stated, looking around. "Weren't we in a huge castle with luxurious rooms and didn't we just learn about who we are supposed to be in this weird world?"  
  
"Yes." Cody responded wondering what the point was.  
  
"Well how the heck did we end up here? I don't remember sleep walking," Yolie asked.  
  
"It's the nature of this world. We are never to understand how if fully works. If we ever were to find out, the world as we know it would come to an end. Now if you don't mind, some of us are trying to sleep here and Tai, please find a towel you are dripping all over me," Sora responded as she closed her eyes and went back to sleep.  
  
Everyone who was awake exchanged looks.  
  
"Great. Who needs to know the difference between fantasy and reality anyway." Izzy replied sarcastically.  
  
"Who cares. It's 3 A.M., I'm tired, my head hurts, and how on earth can T.K. sleep through all that noise?" Joe questioned.  
  
"That's nothing. He once slept through a major earthquake," Kari explained. "You could put a ringing phone in his ear and he wouldn't even hear it."  
  
"Weird," Joe muttered.  
  
Everyone slowly went back to sleep. Tai decided it was probably best if he moved a considerable distance from the group. The last thing he needed was another shower before dawn. The next morning, Tai woke to the sound of birds singing, the low growl of a wolf, the sound of a nearby waterfall, the sun shinning. Wait a minute. Back up. The low growl of a wolf? Tai's eyes shot open only to see the last thing he ever thought he'd see. Garurumon staring at him like he was breakfast.  
  
"Um Matt, you want to do something about your Digimon?" Tai asked, trying very hard not to move. However, Tai neglected to remember that he was further away from the others than he'd hoped.  
  
"Should we try and find Tai?" Cody asked as he watched Kari and Mimi make breakfast.  
  
"No. The smell of breakfast will be enough to bring him running," Sora stated as she joined them.  
  
As if on cue, Tai burst through the camp, running for his life.  
  
"That was odd," Mimi said.  
  
Suddenly, a very huge wolf type Digimon with white fur and blue stripes, burst through the camp. It didn't stop. It just continued to run in the direction Tai had gone. It took the Digidestined a second to realize what was going on.  
  
"If I'm not mistaken, that was Garrurumon. Why on Earth is he chasing Tai?" Matt mused.  
  
"I don't know, but he could really use our help," Sora responded.  
  
"Yeah, but how?" T.K. asked.  
  
"Good question bro," Matt replied.  
  
"Well, I suggest someone think quickly," Kari stated. "The last thing I want to tell mom is that Tai got eaten by Matt's Digimon."  
  
"Kari's got a point," Yolie remarked.  
  
They could hear Tai's screams for help, in the distance. Everyone was deep in thought, trying to figure out how to help Tai, when a bound and unconscious Garrurumon was thrown in front of them. A ninja walked out from the shadows and handed Cody a note. Cody read the note.  
  
_Dear Travelers, I am honored to deal with your pest problem. Please hand over your breakfast as gratitude for saving your fellow traveler.  
  
Sincerely,  
The Strike Ninja  
  
_"What the heck!" Mimi yelled. "You want this food? Well you'll have to go through me to get it."  
  
With a curt bow, the ninja advanced on Mimi. She didn't seem to flinch. The ninja was just about to punch her when she sidestepped and hit him over the head with a frying pan. The ninja turned into blue smoke before becoming a card. Izzy picked it up.  
  
"It looks like a card from one of those trading card games," Izzy remarked.  
  
"Nice one Mimi," Tai complemented, joining the others. "Matt, if I ever see your Digimon again, you had better hope I don't have Greymon with me."  
  
"Um O.K.," Matt replied, backing up a little.  
  
"I don't know about you guys, but all that running gave me an appetite. I say we dig in," Tai stated.  
  
They all agreed and quickly devoured breakfast. After breakfast, they packed up and continued on their journey. They were more aware of what could happen so, they kept an eye out for danger. In the back of their minds, they still remembered that they had to find Davis. No mater what.  
  
&&&  
  
The Digidestined had been in this world for about two weeks, in their estimation. However, they were no closer to figuring this place out. So far, they had encountered weird creatures and had to fight two of their own Digimon. They just hope they could figure this place out and get back to good old normal Earth, soon.  
  
"I'll say this. I much prefer the Digital World. At least there you have a good idea of what you're dealing with. Here, who knows," Joe said.  
  
"I agree," Cody responded.  
  
"Yeah. You never know what'll pop out from behind a tree in this place," Ken added.  
  
"Or where each path leads," Kari chimed in.  
  
"The only guarantee you have is that you will be seriously weirded out," Izzy remarked.  
  
Everyone else agreed. They soon came to a sign that said:  
  
**Forrest of Death and Destruction  
**  
Underneath was an arrow pointing to the left.  
  
**Bridge of Good Fortune**  
  
Underneath was an arrow pointing to the right.  
  
"Any suggestions guys?" Tai asked.  
  
"Gee, that's a tough one. Death or Good Fortune. Let's see, good fortune is so over rated so, why don't we try death," Mimi replied sarcastically.  
  
"I think the answer is obvious. I'll take good fortune over death any day," Ken said.  
  
"Then it's agreed. The Bridge of good Fortune it is," Tai stated.  
  
The Digidestined headed off in the direction the arrow indicated. It didn't take long for them to spot the bridge in the distance. They walked for about a mile before getting a closer look at the bridge. Yolie stopped suddenly.  
  
"What's wrong?" Ken inquired.  
  
"I've got this really weird feeling that we should have gone the other way. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the bridge, or what we'll encounter on the other side," Yolie told him.  
  
"Hey Tai. Yolie thinks we should go the other way. I think we should listen. I don't like the look in her eyes," Ken said.  
  
Tai stopped and looked at Yolie. He had to agree with Ken. She looked a little scary. "All right, lets vote. Who's in favor of turning back?" Matt, Izzy, Cody, Ken, Yolie and Joe raised their hands. "Who thinks we should keep going?" Kari, T.K., Mimi, Sora and Tai raised their hands. "Well, it looks like we're going back."  
  
With that, everyone turned back towards the forest of Death and Destruction. They had to admit, the forest was definitely creepy. However, they could see the other side by mid afternoon. They were almost out when Angewomon appeared in front of them.  
  
"I'm afraid you're not out of the woods yet," Angewomon stated. "You must first answer four riddles/questions."  
  
"Um O.K.," Kari replied.  
  
"First question must be answered by the one called Cody," Angewomon began. "If you answer correctly, you are one question closer to passing. If you fail, you will receive a one way ticket to the White Witch in the Castle of Mourning." Cody swallowed nervously.  
  
"If I could give you anything your heart desires, would you except it?" Angewomon asked.  
  
Cody thought about it. What did his heart desire that he didn't already have? "My answer is no, because everything I've ever wanted I already have."  
  
"Good answer. Ken, step forward." Ken did as told and stood before the female angel. "If you fail to answer this riddle, you will be sent to a world of eternal darkness." That thought made Ken flinch.  
  
"Men have sought my power for ages. They can not own me. I alone can order their steps. They fear me. They know how to defeat me, but refuse to try. Only a few can escape my grasp. What am I?"  
  
Ken pondered the riddle. Truthfully it had more than one answer. He had to find the right one or he'd be sent to a world he had spent so long getting out of. He looked at Yolie and knew his answer. "My first instinct was darkness, but it is actually both darkness and evil. Darkness is the result of the worlds evil."  
  
Angewoman raised an eyebrow. (A.N.: pretend that she doesn't have that helmet thing on) "I'm impressed. Few have realized it to be a trick question. Izzy. Step forward. If you fail to answer this question, you will meet the same ate as your friend Davis."  
  
Izzy did as told, looking a little nervous.  
  
"What is your greatest fear?"  
  
"Good question," Izzy thought. He had a lot of fears. None he'd admit to if asked. Now he had to or he might suffer a fate worse than death. After careful consideration, he gave his answer. "I'd have to say, my greatest fear is waking up one day and realizing my whole life had past me by while I sat on my computer."  
  
"A nice, honest answer. My so-called Digidestined partner, Kari. Answer this correctly or I shoot your 'boyfriend' through the heart with my Celestial Arrow."  
  
Kari gaped at Angewomon. Would her Digimon actually do that? Frankly, she couldn't afford to find out.  
  
"When you think of the Dark Ocean, what's the first thought that crosses your mind?"  
  
"That I can't let it win by destroying my light," Kari replied.  
  
"Good answer. Now say you're trapped there, with no light. It's so dark that you can't see the hand in front of your face. The darkness feels heavy and you're having difficulty breathing. Who do you call on for help?"  
  
"T.K., so he can give me the extra strength I need to fight it."  
  
"Another good answer. However, I just killed T.K. so, you're on your own."  
  
Kari spun around to find T.K. standing motionless with the shaft of an arrow coming out of his chest. Her heart skipped a beat. It couldn't be. Angewomon hadn't really killed him. Right? It was then Kari realized something. "This isn't real," She stated, turning to look at what should have been her Digimon. "First off, you never said I got the question wrong so, you can't kill him. Second, you're not my Digimon. You're possessed like Greymon and Garrurumon. It doesn't take long for me to spot evil incarnate!"  
  
Angewomon screamed a high pitched wail that forced Kari to cover her ears.  
  
"You idiot girl! Your stupid Digimon was right. There is no way to defeat you! Curse you child of the light!" With that said, Angewomon was replaced with a woman dressed in what looked like a cloak of flames. She snapped her fingers and everything went back to normal. Only now did Kari realize she'd been in another place.  
  
"You've answered four of my questions. Take your reward and leave this forest! The Fire Banshee has spoken."  
  
She reached into her cloak, grabbed something, and flung it on the ground before vanishing.  
  
"Oh my gosh! Davis?" Yolie said as they realized what the banshee had thrown at them.  
  
Davis slowly got up and looked around. Where am I?"  
  
"You're in a magical world on a quest with your friends, dummy," Yolie retorted.  
  
"You mean I'm finally free? All right!" Davis exclaimed.  
  
"I vote we leave this forest before anything else happens," Mimi said.  
  
"Agreed," Joe chimed in.  
  
They all began walking towards the exit. However, Kari didn't seem eager to move.  
  
"Are you all right?" T.K. asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"I don't know. I have these same fights with the darkness so often, I'm amazed that I can still tell the difference between reality and fantasy. Some days I just wish they'd leave me alone," Kari replied.  
  
"I understand Kari. Believe me I do," T.K reassured.  
  
"I know you do." She paused, debating if she should tell him what she was thinking or not. "When I thought she'd killed you, earlier, I thought I'd lost everything and it didn't matter if I survived this stupid quest or not. I almost didn't see the fine line between reality and fiction."  
  
T.K. responded by pulling her into a hug. "I have no doubt that you'll always be able to tell the difference," He whispered in her ear.  
  
"Thank you," She whispered back.  
  
A few minutes later, they broke apart and hurried to catch up with the others.  
  
&&&  
  
A lone figure watched the Digidestined from it's perch in the trees. "Enjoy your stay, Digidestined. I assure you, it won't be pleasant," the figure said to no one in particular. "You may have won a few battles, but you'll never win the war. Believe me. The worst is yet to come." With that, the figure vanished.  
  
&&&  
  
Once they were free of the forest, the Digidestined were able to breath easier. A huge clearing opened up in front of them. Yolie looked to the right and gasped. This caused everyone to turn and look at what Yolie saw. Somehow they had passed over to the other side of the gorge. However, that wasn't what Yolie had gasped at. From their vantage point they could see the bridge they were going to cross before deciding to go through the forest.  
  
The bridge was an illusion. A trick of the light. From the other side, it showed it's true nature. It wasn't a normal bridge. It was built out of rope and razor wire. To make things worse, every few steps a trap door would be triggered allowing part of the bridge to fall away. With a group, the size of the Digidestineds group, crossing the bridge would mean sending a few friends to their deaths. The gorge was lined with sharp rocks along the bottom. Anyone who fell through the trap door would be impaled on the rocks below. Those who made it across, if any, would find their hands and feet sliced from the razor wire, or worse. From the skeletons that lined the gorge, it was easy to see that Yolie's instincts had been right.  
  
"There's no place like home. There's no place like home," Mimi chanted as the group headed away from the disturbing scene.  
  
"It seems your instincts were right after all, Yolie," Ken told her.  
  
"Yeah," Yolie whispered. She involuntarily shuddered.  
  
Ken put a reassuring arm around her as the group continued on. Soon night came and they, once again, found themselves camping out. The clearing they chose had an excellent view of the stars. After the last incident, Davis wasn't allowed to watch over the camp. Honestly, he was greatly relieved. They all soon fell asleep, except for the person on duty.  
  
For some reason, Sora couldn't sleep. Probably a combination of the days events. She couldn't get the image of the bridge out of her mind, nor could she believe that her Digimon might turn on her in this strange place. She turned over to see Tai stirring the fire. She hated the way things had gone after the brick wall incident. It had driven them apart in a way she never dreamed possible. She rolled onto her back and looked up at the stars. Why were they here in this place? What were they needed for? In the craziness she'd forgotten. She knew it was something to do with a quest or whatever. She turned back towards the fire and caught Tai staring in her direction.  
  
"Can't sleep," Tai stated. Sora had expected it to be a question.  
  
"After what happened today, I'm surprised anyone can," Sora said. "May I join you?"  
  
"Of course," Tai replied.  
  
Sora got up and walked over to the fire. She sat next to Tai and they watched the fire in silence. Tai looked over at her and noticed her deep in thought. Sora seemed distressed about something.  
  
"Penny for your thoughts?" Tai asked.  
  
Sora looked up and smiled at him before returning her gaze to the fire. "Just thinking," She answered.  
  
"About what?" Tai prodded. He knew that she was the kind of person who would keep things bottled up inside until she burst.  
  
Sora sighed. Sure they were best friends, but did Tai have to know her so well? "I don't know about you, but I can't stop thinking about that brick wall incident. Sure we were embarrassed to be caught like that, but why did it drive us apart?"  
  
Tai pondered the thought. Why had they drifted apart? He might have been embarrassed, but was that something that cold re-bury his new found feelings for Sora? "I don't know," Tai responded. "The truth is, we don't have to let it keep us apart forever. I still care about you and I love you now more than ever."  
  
Sora looked up at her best friend. "What did you say?"  
  
Tai turned to meet her gaze. "I love you, Sora Tachenouchi."  
  
Sora smiled. "I love you too, Tai Kamiya."  
  
They shared a brief, but passionate kiss. Afterwards, they sat in companionable silence, watching the stars. Sora rested her head against Tai as he wrapped his arm around her. If anything, this strange world was good for getting them to realize their true feelings for each other.  
  
&&&  
  
For the next three days, the Digidestined traveled through this strange world. They had a few weird encounters, but nothing that ranked higher than mild on the weird scale. About mid afternoon, they came upon the third village they had discovered in this world. Guarding the gate was a tall woman with auburn hair and blue eyes. She was dressed in a forest green dress and she had greed, iridescent wings coming from her back.  
  
"Good day. We would like to enter this village so that we can restock our supplies," Sora greeted.  
  
The woman looked at Sora with narrowed eyes. "Strangers are not welcomed here. Go before I have to make you leave."  
  
"What's your problem? We just want some food and water. We've been walking for days and haven't eaten in at least a day and a half," Sora protested.  
  
"Oh look at me. I'm some high and mighty person that thinks I can get everything I want," The woman mocked.  
  
"How dare you mock me! I was trying to ask nicely!" Sora retorted.  
  
"You don't scare me! Little miss 'I had to dye my hair red so I'd have an excuse to let my fiery temper free'. I don't buy it! Take your worthless companions and find some place else to go!" The woman shot back.  
  
Now Sora was mad. "For your information, my hair is naturally red and further more, I think you are rude and disrespectful! My friends and I will leave when we are good and ready!"  
  
"Fine Have it your way. Garudamon! Get rid of this annoyance for me."  
  
Sora looked up to see her Digimon heading straight for her. The look in Garudamon's eyes made Sora's heart sink. This is what she feared from day one.  
  
"Wing Blade!" Garudamon shouted, releasing a burst of red energy in the silhouette of a bird.  
  
Sora froze. She screamed at herself to move, but couldn't. She heard Tai scream her name but couldn't find the strength to move. A split second before the attack hit, Sora was tackled to the ground. Sora turned around to find Tai laying beside her with a gaping wound in his side. Sora's vision blurred as tears streamed down her face. She crawled to his side. Tai was bearly breathing, but that little bit was enough to bring her hope. She buried her face in his chest.  
  
"Tai please don't leave me," Sora whispered. "I need you. I don't know if I can survive this place without you. I love you too much to let you die."  
  
The woman stared at Sora. After a few minutes, Sora found the strength to stand. She stared at the woman, her face stained with tears. "I can forgive you for refusing us food and water. To turn my own Digimon against me is unforgivable. Worse yet, is to hurt the one I love! I hope you die a lonely and miserable death for this!"  
  
The woman looked at Sora. She noticed a power deep within the red head. "Y...y...you...a...are...the guardian...of...the...the...sky," The woman stuttered. She threw herself in front of Sora. "I beg your forgiveness, exulted one. My master forced me to use this creature against you. I am honor bound to protect and serve the one whom the sky obeys. She will prove herself to me by the power of love she posses. Her name is the air itself. This is how I will know her. I am the Fairy of the Wind."  
  
"Someone want to explain what happened here?" Joe inquired.  
  
It's really quite obvious," Mimi spoke up. "The Fairy of the Wind was under some sort of spell and Sora was somehow able to break it."  
  
"That makes sense," Yolie agreed.  
  
Sora just stared at the prostrate Fairy before her. Was she supposed to forgive this creature for attacking her and threatening Tai's life? Being under a spell was too easy an answer.  
  
"Allow me to prove myself to you. I was under a spell, as the pink haird one said, and didn't recognize you at first. Please allow me to heal your friend," The Fairy of the Wind said.  
  
"Somehow, I don't believe you," Sora stated, much to everyone's dismay.  
  
"I don't blame you. Garudamon, return to your in-training form and renounce your evil ways. I cannot force you to attack your partner anymore. It's not the sky's way," The Fairy of the Wind instructed.  
  
Garudamon did as told and reverted back to Biyomon. The pink bird looked at Sora with her bright, blue eyes. Sora's eyes locked with her Digimons eyes and she knew that Biyomon wouldn't hurt her anymore. Sora looked at the Fairy who was still prostrate before Sora. The red head looked deep inside herself and knew that the Fairy of the Wind was truly sorry.  
  
"My heart tells me that you speak the truth. Although my logic tells me not to, I forgive you," Sora told the Fairy.  
  
"Thank you, Lady of the Sky," The Fairy of the Wind stated. She walked over to Tai and placed a hand on his wound. She chanted something in a combination of Elvish and the Fairy language. A greenish blue glow surrounded Tai as the wound healed up and became good as new. "I would like to give a peace offering. A fine meal fit for a King."  
  
"Thank you. We are most honored," Matt stated.  
  
The Fairy of the Wind led the travelers into the village and they entered an inn. There they enjoyed a feast like the one they received in the Forest of the Unicorn.  
  
"Fairy of the Wind, I was wondering," Kari began. "Do you know anything about an Elf named Faith? We met her in the Forest of the Unicorn and she said that she was friends with the Fairy of the Woods, whom I believe is your half sister."  
  
The Fairy of the Wind looked at Kari. "An Elf named Faith you said. I have been to the Forest of the Unicorn and have wandered through it's many twists and turns. I have seen a few unicorns here and there, but no Elves I afraid. Wait! I do remember my mother telling my sister and me stories of an enchanted Elf. She was friends with my mother when my mother was 120 years old. The Fire Banshee burned the forest down, killing the Elf. My mother was 305 years old when this happened. There are stories that the Elf's spirit haunts the forest. Many human travelers claim to have seen her and even had elaborate conversations with her. None of it's real and it really only lasts a day. In the morning, the travelers awake to discover they have passed through the forest. It's all kind of weird if you ask me."  
  
"That's exactly what happened to us," Mimi responded. "She brought us to her village, gave us food, and a place to sleep. Not to mention, she told us that we were like Kings and Queens and Knights in this world."  
  
"Gracious! I knew her stories were elaborate, but not that elaborate. She must have been able to retrieve some of her magic after she was killed. The Fire Banshee must be having a good laugh at this," The Fairy of the Wind said.  
  
The Digidestined and the Fairy, finished their meal before turning in for the night. The weary travelers were excited that they got to sleep in real beds for a change. In the morning, the Fairy of the Wind took them as far as the border of her territory. She handed Sora a couple of pouches full of different powders, incantations, and other things that would come in handy. The Digidestined would have to travel through the Land of Fire in order to reach their destination. They would encounter the Fire Banshee, again, and needed to destroy her in order to pass through the Land of Fire. With Biyomon along side Sora, the Digidestined began the next leg of their journey.  
  
Authors Note: Well that's the second chapter. If you liked it, review. If you didn't, then too bad.


	3. Too Hot To Handle

Authors Note: First I would like to apologize for taking so long to get this chapter out. I got real busy then had some minor writers block I had to work through along with trying to get costumes and such ready for my local Anime convention. I appreciate everyone who has reviewed so far and I thank you for your support. I understand that my humor can get a bit odd at times, but it mellows out eventually. Anyway, enough ranting. Enjoy and please review. Thanks.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Many people are very grateful. ;)

Chapter 3: Too Hot To Handle?

The Digidestined had been traveling through a nice meadow for several days when it suddenly stopped at the edge of a vast desert. A giant, neon sign stood before them.

**Welcome to the land of sand and sun**

**No water, food, or another living thing for miles**

**Today's main attraction is whatever the mirages conger up for you**

**Please enjoy your journey through the land of death, exhaustion, and a thousand screams**

**(Tour Guide rentals upon request. See booth for details)**

"Finally, a weirdness level like the others we're used to," T.K. stated.

"Just when you think you've figured out this place," Ken added.

"What I'd like to know is why someone thinks we need a tour guide to tell us where the mounds of sand are?" Davis chimed in.

"I hate to say it, but goggle head has a good point," Yolie responded.

"I think we need to figure out what we do about this desert. Do we cross it or try to find a way around?" Tai stated.

"It would be illogical to assume that there is a way around it," Izzy began. "It would make more sense to just go through it. However, it may not be wise to put ourselves in a potentially dangerous situation, such as this. It may just have to come down to a coin toss."

"Excuse me sir," Kari started, as she approached the Tour Guide Rental booth. "How long will it take to cross the desert?"

"Well now, that all depends on how prepared for the journey you are," The Tour Guide replied. "Do you have any water?"

Kari looked at the others. Joe held up two gallon jugs of water.

"Any food?" The Tour Guide continued.

T.K., Mimi, and Ken showed the three sacks full of fruit and such.

"Mode of transportation?"

Biyomon stepped forward and Digivolved to Bridramon.

"Let's see. There's 12 of you, plus three sacks of food, two jugs of water, and a giant bird. Multiplying that by the distance of the desert... I'd say about two years and twenty-seven days. Provided you live past the first four days of travel."

"What if we went around?" Cody asked.

"There is no way around," The Tour Guide answered. "You either cross the desert or go back the way you came. See, this world is divided into two halves. One half is desert, the other is everything else."

"I'm curious. If we decide to cross this desert thing, why do we need a tour guide?" Davis inquired.

"Good question young man. You need someone to help you avoid the Sand Dragons, Flesh Eaters, and natural Flame Geysers. You also need the pass code for the Fire Banshee's castle," The Tour Guide informed.

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but does it cost anything to rent you?" Mimi questioned.

"Yes. Two jugs of water, three sacks of food, and a giant bird," The Tour Guide told her.

Everyone face faulted. "I knew there was something shifty about you from the beginning. I'd rather go back the way we came than get any kind of help from a common thief like you," Yolie retorted.

"All right. All right. I get the idea. I'll work for free, just don't kill me when you're safely on the other side," The Tour Guide relented.

"Deal," Tai stated.

They all climbed onto the back of Birdramon and began their journey across the desert. No one talked. They didn't exactly feel in a talkative mood. Especially with the sandstorm approaching.

"I might suggest flying a little higher," The Tour Guide requested.

"You heard him Birdramon," Sora told her Digimon. Birdramon did as told and flew higher above the storm.

"I believe that you have a pouch given to you by the Fairy of the Wind. If I'm correct, then there should be a small black pearl the size of a pin head," Sora reached into her pouch and grabbed it. "Good. Now throw it into the storm and sing the Blue Skies song."

Sora looked at him like he was crazy. He assured her that her was telling the truth . Sora sighed and threw the pearl into the storm then sang:

_Blue skies, smiling at you_

_Nothing but blue skies, do I see_

_Blue birds singing a new song_

_Singing a new song from now on_

Immediately the wall of sand disappeared and Birdramon was able to fly straight again.

"I'm not even sure I remember what normal is," Ken stated. The others agreed with him.

Soon the sun began to set and the Tour Guide showed them a spot to camp for the night. There just happened to be a small oasis where they could rest without getting sand everywhere. A bonfire was started, since it gets really cold in a desert at night, and food was passed around. They ate sparingly and soon were tired enough to sleep. They all woke early and were on their way before the sun came up.

Two days passed and nothing eventful occurred. They were beginning to wonder if the Tour Guide had been wrong about the other things he told them to expect. Ahead they saw what looked like water.

"Is that water or a mirage?" Cody asked.

"Neither, my young friend. It's the result of Flame Geysers," The Tour Guide explained. "You may want to slow down a bit. It will be harder to maneuver at such a high speed."

Sora directed Birdramon to do as he said.

"Now, everyone hold on and lean with the bird," The Tour Guide instructed.

They slowly approached the shiny surface and noticed a hole in the middle of it. Birdramon approached with caution. She passed over the area as a column of fire shot upwards.

"Roll left!" The Tour Guide instructed.

Birdramon did as told as everyone clung on for dear life. The fire disappeared and Bridramon righted herself again. They passed over another area, similar to the first, and another jet of fire burst from the ground.

"Roll right!" The Tour Guide told Birdramon.

Once again the digimon followed instructions. Soon the group found themselves surrounded by potential Flame Geysers. They had no choice but to go through. The Tour Guide guided them the whole way.

"Roll right! Turn left! Stop! Fly up! Roll left! Turn right! Dive!" The Tour Guide instructed as he expertly guided them through the columns of fire. Eventually they made it out safely.

"What was that shiny stuff on the ground?" Mimi asked.

"Glass. When fire heats up sand, it becomes glass," The Tour Guide explained.

"Oh," Mimi replied.

The group flew on until nightfall. As the Digidestined and their tour guide slept, the desert sands were shifting. Several mounds of sand could be seen moving across the desert. The mounds of sand began to slowly approach the sleepy travelers. Oddly enough, the Digidestined didn't post any lookouts for the night. The mounds of sand encircled the camp in a well coordinated maneuver. Joe stirred and opened his eyes. He placed his glasses on and scanned the area. Something just didn't seem right to him. He noticed one of the mounds inching closer to where T.K. was sleeping. Joe's eyes widened as the mound of sand grew six feet tall. The sand melted away and a huge, yellowish brown, blob with black eyes and sharp teeth stared hungrily at the blonde. Drool began to leak from the creatures mouth. Joe was about to say something when a figure moved between T.K. and the sand creature. Joe couldn't tell what the figure looked like because it was completely shrouded in shadows.

"Flower Cannon!" The figure yelled. A bright glow eliminated the desert and the creature was blown to pieces. This angered its friends who rose to do battle with his new enemy.

Joe was surprised to see Lillymon. Several of the Digidestined awoke at her cry. Sora, Matt, Kari, and Cody, joined Joe in staring at the sight in front of them. The blobs moved towards Lillymon, teeth bared and claws glistening in the moonlight. The moons glow gave enough light, now, to eliminate the scene. Lillymon reacted quickly and used her Flower Cannon to destroy the blobs. As those blobs were destroyed, more were moving towards the group. By now the others were starting to wake up.

"Lillymon! What are you doing here? Why weren't you possessed like the others?" Mimi asked her digimon.

"I was able to hear the plans to possess all of us digimon then turn us against you guys. I knew I couldn't let them do that to me. I managed to find Angewomon and Angemon. I explained to them what I had heard. Sadly they were captured. However, I did learn that they had not been turned. By the time I reached the others, they had already been possessed. I then fled here knowing that this was the last place anyone would look for me. I followed the Flesh Eaters here. They were moving in large groups so, I knew there was something big enough to attract them. That's how I found you, Mimi."

"I hate to put a damper on this reunion, but we've got company," Cody stated.

"Maybe Biyomon could digivolve and help Lillymon," Sora suggested.

"No," Mimi replied. "Biyomon needs to save up her strength so she can help us across this desert."

"The pink one is right," The Tour Guide spoke up. "Besides, we need a creature with fire breath to help defeat these Flesh Eaters. Which one of you knows of such a creature?"

"I guess that would be me," Tai said. "My digimon is Augumon. He can breath fire. However, he was possessed and then had to be destroyed."

"Who destroyed him?" The Tour Guide questioned.

"A girl called Regina Hood."

"What did she saw when she destroyed your digimon?"

"She said he was under a curse and needed to die, I think. Wait! She also said something about it being re-born in the moonlight," Tai replied.

The Tour Guide turned toward Sora. "Do you have a ruby and some yellow powder in that pouch of yours?"

"Let me check." Sora dug through the pouch. She retrieved a small ruby and a vial of yellow powder.

"Good. Give the ruby to him," The Tour Guide said, indicating Tai. Sora handed Tai the ruby. "Take the powder and draw a circle around him. When the circle is complete, place the ruby in the center of the circle and step outside. The red head will then pour the remaining powder on top of the ruby." Tai and Sora did as instructed. "Lillymon, aim your cannon at the ruby and fire." Lillymon did so.

A reddish orange flame erupted from the circle. It grew several feet tall. After a few minutes, the flames disappeared and revealed Greymon standing in the circle. The digimon opened his blue eyes and surveyed the group. His eyes soon drifted to the outskirts of the camp where the Flesh Eaters were fast approaching. Greymon advanced on the mounds of sand and unleashed his Nova Blast. The mounds shrieked as the blobs shot up from the sand. Greymon attacked them again and those that weren't incinerated, fled for their lives. Both Greymon and Lillymon returned to their in-training forms and joined their Digidestined partners. Tai was glad to see Augumon again and Palmon was glad to see Mimi.

The next morning, the Digidestined continued their journey across the desert. They had two rescued digimon with them and it definitely looked like the tables were turning in this crazy world. It was getting easier to see their true purpose for being there.

&&&

"Curse those stupid children and their meddling digimon. How dare they think that they can just waltz through my desert and destroy all my hard work. At least I still have my Sand Dragons. They don't call me the Fire Banshee for nothing. Go my pets and destroy those intruders." The Fire Banshee laughed evilly.

&&&

"Are we there yet?" Davis asked out of sheer boredom.

"No. If I'd known it would take this long to cross the desert, I would have brought a hat or at least some sunscreen. The sun is totally ruining my complexion," Mimi responded.

"It's a desert. Unfortunately there isn't anything we can do about the sun exposure," Kari stated.

The Digidestined had been flying over the desert for several days now. Although they were grateful for not having to worry about things attacking, they were starting to get tired of the endless sand and sun. The occasional mirage didn't help either. More than once, they could swear they saw the Fire Banshees castle. Only the Tour Guide knew it was fake, luckily. The trip was becoming endless and boring. To prove the point, many of the Digidestined were falling asleep. Night fell on the desert and everyone was grateful for the relief from the heat. They all bedded down for the night. All except Yolie. She couldn't sleep. She wrapped her blanket around her as she watched the stars. Something about them comforted her in this strange place.

The weirdness level seemed to be returning to normal and as much as Yolie hated to admit it, she kind of missed the mayhem. It was something she'd grown accustom to like being a Digidestined. She sighed. "I just hope we all make it out of here alive," Yolie muttered to herself. She was about to lay down and attempt to sleep when a soft roar made it's way across the desert. She looked around the camp to see if anyone else heard it. A few stirred in their sleep, but that was it. "Tonight would have been a good night for lookouts," Yolie thought. The roar sounded again. Yolie looked around to find the source. She turned to her left and came face to face with a pair of glowing red eyes. She shook the person next to her, trying to wake them up. The person just so happened to be Ken. "Ken, please wake up. I need your help," Yolie pleaded just above a whisper.

"I didn't study for the History test," Ken muttered in his sleep. "You only gave us five minutes to find out what was on the test before we are to take it. I don't now anything about Fairies, Dragons or Gnomes. I'm not daydreaming. I'll get good grades next year. Wait. Let me stay with Yolie. I could study her instead." Yolie blushed at the last comment and kicked him in the arm to wake him up.

Ken slowly opened his eyes and looked around. It took a few seconds for his eyes to focus. When they did, he saw Yolie staring at him. He was momentarily startled to see the subject of his dream in front of him as a small blush tinted his cheeks. Yolie was about to explain about the eyes she'd seen peering at her when she felt the hot breath, of some creature, on the back of her neck. Yolie turned around as Ken's eyes grew wide. The moonlight shone on the creature exposing it. It was a dragon with red eyes, black scales, and stood at least ten feet tall.

"Yolie, tell me I'm still dreaming," Ken stated.

"I'd love to, however, I doubt it's possible for us to dream the same thing," Yolie replied.

A low growl emitted from the dragon. Saliva glinted off it's white teeth. The ground began to tremble slightly as the dragon turned his head to the right.

"What I wouldn't give to have our digimon right about now," Ken whispered.

Before Yolie could agree, the dragon turned back towards Ken and Yolie. A second dragon joined the first. It looked exactly like the first except it had blue eyes.

"Now what do we do?" Yolie asked.

Ken looked around, cautiously. As far as he could tell, everyone was still sound asleep. Even the digimon were peacefully resting. He didn't have a clue what they should do. The two dragons continued to stare at them. It was almost like the creatures couldn't tell if these two Digidestined were a meal, a threat, or something else.

Yolie tried very hard not to make any sudden movements while also trying not to let her fear overcome her. She felt a hand on hers and slowly looked up at Ken. He looked at her and all of her crush feelings came flooding back. She wanted so bad to just be friends with him, like he wanted. However, there were moments, like now, that made those feelings even harder to ignore. A movement in the sand caught their attention. The two dragons also turned to look. Ankylomon burst from the sand. His eyes glowed red and he didn't look friendly.

"What are you waiting for?" Ankylomon questioned the dragons. "You were given orders to destroy the Digidestined so, don't just sit there, destroy them!"

The two dragons growled in response. They turned back towards Ken and Yolie. A fire blast erupted from their mouths. Ken and Yolie managed to dodge the fire and the fire just barely missed the other Digidestined who were still sleeping. Without their digimon to help fight, they had no choice but to run. They were running circles around the campsite when Ken realized they were still holding hands.

"Um, Yolie, you can let go of my hand now," Ken stated.

"Love to, but I can't. It seems like they're stuck together," Yolie replied.

A stream of fire split the sky as Ken and Yolie dodged it. They'd been at this game of cat and mouse for hours and it was getting annoying. The sun would be up soon and there was no telling what would happen then. The two still couldn't believe the others hadn't woken up yet. The dragons continued to shoot fire at the two so rapidly it was getting hard to dodge. Ken looked up to see a stream of fire heading straight for them. He pulled Yolie behind him and braced for the impact. When he didn't feel the flames, Ken opened his eyes and saw that Yolie and he were surrounded by a silvery sort of shield. In front of the shield stood a young man with blonde hair. He was dressed in a dark blue tunic, brown pants, and black boots. He held a sword out in front of him and Ken swore he saw flames dancing on it.

"Who are you?" Yolie asked as she stepped out from behind Ken. Her hand was still stuck in Ken's grasp.

"I'm called Ray. I was exiled to this desert when the evil wizard took over. I have yet to figure a way out of here, but I'm certain the key lies hidden in the Fire Banshees castle," Ray answered.

"Thanks for shielding us from the fire," Ken stated.

"You're welcome," Ray responded.

The dragons attacked, again, sending their flames towards the trio. Ray deflected each blast with his sword which gave off a yellowish glow as the flames hit it.

"How do we defeat these things?" Yolie asked.

"It's a matter of diverting the fire. If I deflect it to the underside of the dragons, they will be destroyed," Ray explained.

The dragons fired again and this time Ray was successful in destroying one of the dragons. The second soon followed. Ankylomon then charged Ray, but the blonde held up a hand and Ankylomon reverted back to his in-training form of Armodillomon.

"Thanks again," Yolie told Ray. :You wouldn't by any chance know how we fix this would you?" Yolie inquired, holding up the hand that was stuck to Ken's.

Ray looked at their hands before smiling. "That will wear off when you reveal your true feelings for each other." Both Ken and Yolie blushed a deep shade of crimson.

"Do you know why we are the only ones awake?" Ken questioned.

"Yes. Normally when the Sand Dragons approach a camp, like this, they wake up one of the people. That person is allowed to wake up one other person who shall remain awake with them until the dragons are destroyed," Ray answered.

"Oh," Ken replied.

Neither Ken nor Yolie were pleased with the thought of having their hands stuck together. Especially when they let their minds wander. To make matters worse, Yolie wasn't liking the fact that she would have to tell Ken she had the biggest crush, in the history of crushes, on him. It also didn't help that they were beginning to feel the effects of running around all night without any sleep. Ray chuckled as the two fell asleep next to each other.

&&&

The sun rose slowly across the horizon. It was crucial to get a move on before the desert heated up. However, morning greeted the Digidestined with an unusual sight. Not only did they have a visitor, but they discovered two of their own sound asleep, next to each other, with their hands intertwined. Most people might just let them sleep, but to a group of teenagers, the temptation of teasing/blackmail was just too good to pass up.

"Greetings friends. I hate to intrude, but two of your friends needed a little help last night and I was in the area. I'm Ray," Ray introduced.

"It's nice to meet you," Tai stated. "Mind telling me about yourself?"

"Not at all," Ray replied. "I was banished to this desert when the evil wizard took over. I've been living here ever since. I just can't seem to find a way out. I believe the key is in the Fire Banshee's castle, however, I have been unsuccessful in penetrating her fortress. I heard about a group of young travelers that were sent to free this place and I knew they could help me. I believe you are those travelers. If you'll let me, I'd like us to team up. With my knowledge of this place and your ability to fight evil, I think we can defeat this evil wizard and return this land to its rightful ruler."

"I have a question," Kari asked. "What happened last night?"

Ray smiled. "The Sand Dragons decided _they _didn't need sleep," He responded, pointing towards Ken and Yolie. "It also appears that they have at least one secret they haven't told each other." Ray saw the question marks on the faces of the Digidstined and quickly explained last nights events. "The Sand Dragons only have one side effect which makes anyone, who hasn't admitted their feelings for each other, become stuck to each other. It's designed to release the two people when they admit their feelings. They were lucky that their hands were stuck together. I've seen other victims that had other parts of their body stuck together. They eventually get sick of being stuck together and admit their feelings."

"Just what we need," Mimi stated.

"It won't be easy to travel with those two sleeping. We may have to stay here for the day," Cody stated.

"Not a problem," Ray replied. He stuck his sword in the ground and chanted something. An oasis sprang up around the Digidestined complete with a pond.

The Digidestined were a bit shocked, at first, but soon settled in to enjoying the day. They discussed strategies with Ray and learned all about the Fire Banshee. By lunch, Ken and Yolie had woken up and, to their dismay, were still linked together by their hands. To make matters worse, the rest of the Digidestined couldn't help but tease them about it. Especially Davis. It was definitely the most humiliating day of their lives. As the sun sank below the horizon, Kari couldn't help but feel sorry for her two friends. She knew Yolie wouldn't confess her feelings for Ken anytime soon. That meant Yolie would have to figure out how to do normal, everyday things, while holding Ken's hand. This was going to make things really interesting when they reached the Fire Banshee's castle and had to fight. Kari silently prayed that Yolie would just bite the bullet and get things back to normal.

&&&

The Digidestined, Tour Guide, Ray, Augumon, Palmon, and Armodillomon, were off and traveling the desert again the next day. It took three days to get within sight of a giant castle. The castle looked like it was made completely out of sand and would collapse at any moment. However, the presence of Sand Dragons made the situation a lot more serious. Another days travel would see them at the castle. They needed to put their plans into action. Ray would distract the dragons while the others entered the castle. Once inside, they had to find a way to defeat the Fire Banshee. They also needed to look for any clues that might help save this world from the evil wizard.

The Digidestined decided to wait until the following morning to attack the castle. T.K. noticed Ken and Yolie sitting off to the side. They had their backs to each other and were sitting as comfortably as anyone who had their hands stuck together could. They both had a miserable look on their face.

"I hope those two figure out how to fix their problem before they end up hating each other," T.K. stated.

"That's part of the problem," Kari explained. "Yolie still has a huge crush on Ken. So much so I wouldn't be surprised if it's turned into love by now. However, she won't tell him because she's afraid of what will happen when she does."

"What's the worst that can happen. Ken telling her he doesn't see anything but friendship between them?" T.K. asked.

"Yes and that's the problem. As much as I hate to say it, she'd prefer to stay as she is rather than admit her feelings and get rejected or worse ruin the friendship she's trying to build with Ken. Of course I could be wrong. Given the right motivation she might confess. Who knows. I guess it just depends on how she feels. In my opinion, rejection is a lot better than being stuck together in such a way." Kari responded.

'This is either the worst moment of my life or the best,' Yolie thought. 'About the only good thing happening is that I get to hold Ken's hand. I better enjoy it while I can, 'cause I doubt he'll want to hold my hand when he finds out I still have a crush on him. This officially sucks. I was hoping that he would confess first, but with my luck I'm the only one who has something to confess.' She let a small sigh escape her lips. Now she had to decide if being stuck to Ken while fighting an evil Banshee was a good idea.

Yolie looked around and noticed the Tour Guide fuming. Ever since Ray showed up, there wasn't a need for the Tour Guide. Ray knew everything the Tour Guide did and more. Yolie wondered why the Tour Guide didn't just leave. She then remembered something. Before they began their journey across the desert, the Tour Guide had mentioned something about being the only one who knew the pass code for the Fire Banshee's castle. That was the reason the Tour Guide was still here. He was still needed. The smell of food made it's way to Yolie's nose and Ken and she attempted to get up and go get something to eat. 'Maybe it would be a good idea to just tell him and get it over with,' She thought. She turned and saw the smallest hint of a blush on Ken's cheeks as he helped her up. 'On second thought, I may not be the only one with something to confess. This odd torture could turn out to be something unexpected after all.' Yolie smiled inwardly at her train of thought. 'I wonder if Ken's friendship speech was meant to throw me off the trail and not suspect that maybe he had feelings for me too. If this is true, I may have to thank that Fire Banshee when I see her.'

Authors Note: I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. I do have one thing to ask. Should I have Ken and Yolie stuck together while they fight the Fire Banshee or should they confess and get there hands unstuck before they enter the castle? Let me know in your reviews. I'm kind of split on how I want to continue that particular plot twist. Please review and bear with me 'cause it may be awhile before my next update.


	4. How To Fight A Banshee

Authors Note: I apologize profusely for not updating this sooner. I had MAJOR writers block that prevented me from getting this done as quickly as I would have liked. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and please see my note at the bottom. Thank you.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Any movie references or titles belong to their owners and are not mine either.

Chapter 4: How to fight a Banshee

The Digidestined were fast asleep as they rested up for their adventure in the Banshee's castle tomorrow. As was typical, one member of the group couldn't sleep. Ken lay on his side and couldn't help but stare at Yolie. She was lying on her back and seemed to be asleep. Ken suspected that, just like him, she couldn't sleep. He felt guilty for getting her in this mess. He could sense just how awkward it was for her to have her hand stuck to his. Yolie turned her head and their eyes met. This proved him right about her not being asleep. They just stared into each others eyes, neither one saying a word. It was evident they were both sick of being stuck together and having their friends tease them about it.

"Ken, there's something I have to tell you," Yolie began, breaking the silence. "I know you won't like it, but just listen. I want very much to be your friend. You know I'm always there for you and you can talk to me about anything. I also feel that I need to be completely honest with you. You know all about the fan girl type crush I had on you before I even met you. The truth is, I lied to you when I said it was gone. It never fully went away. In fact it just got stronger and more intense. I don't care if it ever goes away or if it manifests into something else because I want our friendship to stay intact. That's the most important thing to me. I'll probably never act on my crush, but I had to tell you it still exists." Yolie braced herself for whatever Ken would say. She looked down at their stuck hands and was a little surprised to see that their hands were still stuck together.

Ken was shocked by what Yolie had told him. She still had a huge crush on him. Just great. However, she did say that their friendship was more important. He looked at her and saw her downcast face. She had prepared herself for the worst and that almost broke his heart. Did she really expect him to slap her and say that he never wanted to see her again?

"Yolie," Ken began. She lifted her eyes to look at him. "Thanks for telling me. It must make you feel better to get that off your chest and out in the open." Ken looked into her ruby red eyes. "The truth is, I've never been close to anyone before or even had a relationship with someone. I thought that if we started out as friends it might lead up to a relationship. I feel like we can really relate to each other and you're really important to me. That's why I don't want anything to ruin our friendship. I really hope this works out because there isn't another person that I'd choose. I want to see what it's like to be your friend and maybe someday your boyfriend."

Yolie couldn't believe her ears. Ken liked her back. He wanted to be friends with her so he could get to know her better and maybe, one day, date her. A huge grin spread across her face as she threw her arms around him in a warm embrace. Neither of them realized that their hands were no longer stuck together. When they broke the embrace, Yolie looked down at her hand only to discover it had been freed from Ken's hand. Disappointment filled her and she realized how cold her hand felt. Ken must have sensed her disappointment because he reached out and squeezed her hand. Yolie smiled at him. Ken and Yolie soon settled back onto their blankets and went to sleep. Tomorrow would be a busy day and they needed all the rest they could get.

&&&

The Fire Banshee's castle loomed overhead as the Digidestined, some of their Digimon, and their new friends, stood in front of the door.

"Pass code please," A mechanical voice requested.

"Whisper, if you please," The Tour Guide stated.

"Pass code accepted. You may enter," The voice responded.

The huge doors opened and everyone cautiously stepped inside. No one knew what to expect so, they decided to stay close together. In front of them was a long hallway with doors on either side. As the group walked down the hallway torches, along the wall, burst into flame and illuminated the path before them.

"So, do we keep walking down the hallway or do we open the doors and see where they lead?" Davis asked.

"It seems like a safe bet to keep walking down this hall. However, our past experiences tell us that the safe road isn't always safe. Do we take a vote or let someone make the decision for us?" Mimi asked.

"Maybe we should ask the Tour Guide or ray. They seem to know this place better than we do," T.K. suggested.

All eyes turned to look at the Tour Guide and Ray. Both seemed to be deep in thought. After a few minutes, they spoke.

"If I recall correctly, the Banshee is known for her creative traps," Ray stated.

"This is true and I believe there is no more cunning a trap then to prey on ones curiosity," The Tour Guide added. "Call it whatever you will, I believe continuing down the hall is our best bet."

"It may also be a much quicker way to the Banshee herself," Ray chimed in.

"All right. Straight it is," Tai said.

The group walked down the hallway, ignoring the doors on either side, for what seemed like hours. They were beginning to wonder if this was actually the long way to get somewhere. The more they walked the longer the hallway seemed to get. It didn't take long for the urge of just opening a door and taking became too much to resist. They decided to stop walking and take a break. Most of the Digidestined sat on the floor, grateful to get off their feet.

They hadn't been resting long when one of the doors opened and what looked like a ball of light shoot into the hallway. The door slammed shut and Ray reached out and captured the ball of light in his hands.

"You crazy head! Let go of me this instant!" A small, feminine voice spoke.

"Tell us how to get to the Banshee and I'll consider it," Ray replied. The others realized her was talking to the light he'd captured.

"Why should I help you?" The light asked.

"If you help us, you won't have to worry about the Fire Banshee anymore and you'll be free of this place," Ray told it.

There was a long pause. "Fine, but only because I've been going around in circles for the past few days."

"Thanks." Ray opened his hand and to everyone's astonishment a small creature sat in the palm of his hand.

The creature was female with short, red hair and blue eyes. She had on a blue, sleeveless dress that was tattered around the hem. Her ears were pointed and she had blue, iridescent wings protruding from her back.

"My name's Ella. I'm a pixie. I've been trapped in here for a long time, but I do know where to find the Fire Banshee. Follow me and I'll show you." Ella took to the air and became a ball of light again. A soft, bell like noise followed in her wake as she led the group down the corridor.

Five minutes later, the Digidestined and their companions came to a fork in the road. Ella paused in the air, contemplating which way to go. It only took her a minute to figure it out. She turned to the right and led everyone down a similar corridor. The only difference was that the doors were open. However, the rooms seemed to be empty.

"Don't let the doors fool you," Ella spoke as she led them along. "They look empty on purpose. Many a person, who has ventured inside, has either been driven mad or died laughing. No one escapes the Fire Banshee's twisted ways."

Davis involuntarily shuddered, remembering his time as the Fire Banshee's prisoner. He still wasn't quite sure what had happened to give him his freedom. They rounded a corner and were assaulted by hot, humid air. Before they knew it, they had wondered into a jungle. A jungle that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"One minute we're in a castle, the next we're in a jungle. I don't think I want to know," Yolie stated. A few others agreed with her.

"I'll admit it's pretty weird, but you learn to get used to the weirdness," Ella told them.

A very colorful bird landed on the Tour Guides head, making him very annoyed. The Tour Guide just couldn't seem to get the bird to fly away. No matter what he tried, the bird just stayed. After awhile, the Tour Guides antics became quite hilarious and it was very hard not to laugh at him.

Ella flew up in front of the bird and managed to get it to leave the Tour Guide alone. "I told you, people die laughing here. I don't care how funny it is, you CAN'T laugh," Ella told them.

The group quickly controlled their laughter and continued on through the jungle. A few minutes later, they left the jungle and found themselves in another part of the castle.

"We're getting closer to the main part of the castle. I can't guarantee if the Fire Banshee will be there or not, but I can take you to her inner chambers," Ella stated.

The hallway began to turn, at random places, and everyone soon felt as though they were going in circles. They came to a flight of stairs and followed Ella up them. After an exhausting hike, they came to a landing. Black letters were painted on the left side of the wall, which read:

**3rd floor, basement level**

**16,000 feet below ground and climbing**

**caution: floor may be wet**

"Is anyone else utterly confused?" Davis asked. "I could have sworn we walked up the stairs not down."

"If this is someone's idea of a cruel joke, it's not funny. I'm not wearing proper shoes for this," Mimi stated.

Ella flew down the hallway, in front of them. When no one followed, she informed them that they had to follow her. Everyone did. It didn't take long to reach the end of the hall. A huge wooden door stood before the group. It seemed as if it just continued up without end. A sign on the door read:

**I control fire**

**I control minds**

**I have power over sound**

**If you shout I will scream**

**If you whisper, I promise not to be mean**

"So, do we knock or wait for someone to open the door for us?" T.K. asked.

Ella looked at Ray, who returned the look. The two seemed to be lost in a staring contest.

"I think I remember hearing that someone has to approach the door. I don't remember what happens after that," The Tour Guide informed them.

"If you would stop your blabbering I might be able to help you. However, I doubt that any of you are capable of shutting your mouths long enough to listen," A voice said from the shadows. A man in a red shirt and black pants stepped forward. He had orange hair and green eyes. He held a clipboard in one hand and a white pencil in the other. He looked at Ella and Ray. "Would you two please stop. Neither of you is going to win, therefore this is pointless."

Ray and Ella stopped and turned their attention to the man.

"Now then, if you will please state your name, we can move things along."

"We're the Digidestined, along with a few of our Digimon and this is ray, Tour Guide, and Ella," Tai told the man.

"All right then. Let me see…" He began to look at the clipboard intently as if searching for their names. "…ah yes, here you are. Digidestined and friends. You are the Banshee's 4 o'clock appointment and you are late. How dare you show up so late. You'll be lucky if the Banshee sees you at all." Under his breath he stated, "of course she is still hungry after the chips managed to escape." Turning back to the group he added. "You may see the Banshee on two conditions. One, you must always whisper, if you insist on talking, and two, never say she is anything but beautiful and well tempered. Enjoy your stay." He opened the door and the Digidestined reluctantly entered.

The first thing they noticed was the stifling heat. They then noticed the torches and fire pits that created the heat. As they walked forward, Cody noticed how nervous Davis seemed. Cody had to admit that even he'd be nervous if he had to return to a place he'd just escaped.

Ella continued to lead the group. She appeared fearless while the others began to show signs of fear. They eventually reached the other end of the room only to find nothing but and empty throne. They didn't have to wait long. A huge fireball erupted in front of the throne. The flames dispersed to reveal the Fire Banshee.

The Fire Banshee was almost six feet tall with dark red hair and piercing white/blue eyes. Her hair was wispy, stringy,. And very unattractive. It seemed to billow around her head as if blown by an invisible wind. He skin was pale and looked awful next to her hair. Her skin hung off her, in places, as if she had been given too much for her frame. Her hands were long and bony and she wore a long, light blue dress that was tattered and looked like it had seen better days. She was truly and odd sight to behold.

"Welcome my young guests," The Fire Banshee greeted. Her voice squeaking in odd places. "I know you have come to defeat me. I assure you, you will fail." The fire rose high in the air, startling the Digidestined. I have many minions at my disposal. I assure you, you will not defeat me as easily as you did my pets." She began to laugh. It sounded like a cross between breaks squealing and fingernails on a chalkboard. Everyone had to put their fingers in their ears. "Now prepare to feel the fury of my fire!" Fire began to erupt from every nook and cranny as it inched towards the group.

"Hey Davis, you were her prisoner once. Any ideas how to defeat her?" T.K. asked.

Davis tried to think. He'd been so scared out of his mind when the Banshee had captured him, that he wasn't sure what was going on. He thought harder and seemed to vaguely remember a couple of guards talking about the Banshee. He desperately tried to remember what they had said.

"If you could think faster, it would be appreciated," Mimi stated as the fire crept closer to the group.

"It's useless. Once the fire reaches you, you will be barbecued and I will eat well," The Banshee taunted. She let loose another ear splitting laugh.

Davis desperately tried to cover his ears as he remembered what the guards had said.

_"Remember not to give her anything with water in it or she'll melt like chocolate in the sun."_

"Guys I've got it," Davis stated as the Banshee stopped yelling. They all huddled together to hear his plan. "She's like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz. If we get her wet, she'll melt."

"Wait, that makes sense. If you were made of fire, you'd hate water too," Sora added.

"So, who gets the water?" Cody asked.

"We need a digimon with water abilities. It's the fastest way," Tai said.

"We need Gomamon," Joe stated.

"What does he look like?" Ella asked.

"He looks like a white seal with red hair and purple spots," Joe replied.

"I think I've seen him. I'll be right back," Ella told them then disappeared from the group.

Several minutes passed as the flames continued to get closer and the Fire Banshee's taunts more frequent. They were beginning to loose hope when they noticed steam rising from the far side of the room, where they entered.

"What is the meaning of this?" The Fire Banshee shrieked.

By now the flames had been completely put out. A the steam cleared, they could see Ella hovering above Tsudamon.

"How dare you free one of my prisoners! You will pay for that!" The Banshee yelled. She launched a stream of fire at the digimon, but before it reached him, Tsudamon had used his bullpin hammer to smash into the water line, creating a stream of water that hit the Banshee full on. She shrieked as everyone covered their ears. When they looked at the Banshee, she was gone. Reduced to a simple puddle on the floor. A flash of white light erupted from the room and the group had to shield their eyes. When they opened their eyes, they discovered that the castle was gone and they were at the end of the desert.

"Wait a minute. Aren't we supposed to be back home? I thought for sure that we'd be back home after the Banshee went all Wizard of Oz on us, but we're still stuck here. Why?" Davis whined.

"You didn't use your ruby slippers or say the magic words, Dorothy," Kari stated.

"Whatever," Davis replied.

"Where did the Tour Guide, Ray and Ella go?" Yolie questioned. Everyone looked around.

"I'm not sure. Maybe they were sent back where they belong now that we don't need them anymore," Ken supplied.

"We should get going before night falls. There's no telling what we'll encounter next," Tai told the group.

Everyone agreed as they crossed into the lush forest on the other side of the desert. Needless to say, everyone was very glad to leave the hot, dry, sandy place behind. They managed to get deep into the forest and set up camp before the sun went down. They were encouraged by the fact that they had not only defeated one of the main baddies in this place, but also freed another digimon. Their mission seemed possible now and oddly enough, they were looking forward to the future adventures they would encounter.

Authors Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. To prevent future chapters to be delayed, due to writers block, I am asking that you please include any story ideas you may have in your review. Thank you.


	5. What Next?

Authors Note: I apologize profusely for not updating sooner! I had major writers block, then life managed to get in the way and the last thing I knew two years had passed by. I hope this chapter makes up for it, if not the following chapters should. I again apologize for the tardiness of this chapter and hope that I haven't lost anyone due to me absence.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Many are very thankful. ;)

Chapter 5: What Next?

The Digidestined had been traveling through the thick jungles for several days now. It wasn't an easy landscape to traverse and the humidity was beginning to wear on them. They were glad they had Digimon with them to help them navigate through the overgrown vines and to clear a path when necessary. Gommamon was even good at finding fresh water for them, while Biyomon managed to find edible food. In some ways, this environment was just as bad if not worse than the desert they left behind.

On the fifth day, of their travel through the jungle forest, the Digidestined reached a clearing. They decided to make camp there and take some much needed rest. Their desire to get through this place, finish their quest, and get home, was draining them mentally and physically. Mimi had the idea of playing games and treating this as an outdoor sleepover. After some scary stories, the girls insisted they play Truth or Dare. Sadly, the game didn't last long as they had run out of good dares in this primitive setting. They eventually turned in for the night, agreeing to wait until morning to discuss their next plan of action.

Morning came earlier than expected. T.K. woke up, rather reluctantly. It seemed as though he had just gotten to sleep. He attempted to rub the sleep out of his eyes. When he was done he looked at his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was the clearing was fenced in by very thick, very tall hedges. The second thing he noticed was that all the other Digidestined, save one, were missing.

Kari stirred before sitting up. Like T.K., she also felt like she'd bearly gotten any sleep. She looked around and noticed T.K. looking at her with a weird look on his face. She quickly scanned the area and took note of the hedges as well as the absence of their friends. She did, however, notice that one of the Digimon was with them. Biyomon.

"What is going on?" T.K. asked Kari.

"I was hoping you could tell me," She replied.

&&&

Gommamon stirred then looked at the two Digidestined. "Did we sleepwalk away from the rest of the group or something?" He asked.

"I don't think so," Cody replied. The young Digidestined had awakened to the same dilemma that plagued T.K. and Kari.

Cody had noticed that Joe and Augumon were the only other beings in their hedged in surroundings. Cody was hoping that Joe would be able to provide some sort of explanation when he woke up.

&&&

"Explain to me again how we got stuck with the goggle head menace?" Yolie exclaimed, just barely keeping her voice low enough as to not awaken the aforementioned person.

"I wish I knew," Ken replied. "All I know is that I woke up with this hedge wall and you and Davis as companions."

"I have a feeling things are going to get worse before they get better, if they can get better," Yolie stated.

Davis rolled over in his sleep, muttering something unintelligible and Ken could almost see the flames shooting out of Yolies eyes. Needles to say, this was going to be a long day.

&&&

Matt woke up to find an unusual warmth in his arms. He smiled as he realized that Mimi had unconsciously snuggled up to him during the night. The sight of hedge walls and a sleeping Armadillomon shocked him into full consciousness. What on earth was going on here?

Mimi stirred and Matt looked down at her as her eyes fluttered open. "Morning princess," he greeted.

"Morning. I guess it was a lot colder evening than I realized," Mimi responded, referring to their interesting position. Matt let her go as she stood up and stretched. "You could have warned me before you decided to redecorate the forest."

"I wish I could take the credit, but I just found the place like this myself," Matt replied.

"Charming," Mimi added sarcastically.

&&&

Like all the others, Tai and Sora also awoke to find themselves fenced in by large hedge walls and Palmon as their only other companion.

"I'm not sure I'd classify this as weird, but it is an unusual change of pace," Sora stated.

"I suppose we should have breakfast and then decided what to do about the wall," Tai suggested.

"I hate to break it to you, Tai, but unless you have some food hidden on you we have to skip breakfast because I don't have any food," Sora told him.

The look on Tai's face confirmed the sad fact that neither of them had any food. On cue, the hedges surrounding them started to blossom with bright red berries. Tai was about to pick one when Sora stopped him.

"Look Tai, the berries spell something," Sora said.

Sure enough, the berries on each section of wall had spelled out one simple phrase. PICK ME!

"Let me get this straight," Tai began. "We have to pick a specific hedge wall?"

"It looks like it," Sora responded.

"Does this mean that one of these walls is the exit?"

"I suppose so."

"So, we choose a wall how?"

"We pick the berries on that wall, I guess," Sora decided.

"Which one do you want to pick?" Tai asked.

Sora looked at the walls. They all looked the same to her. "I don't care. You pick," She told Tai.

Tai didn't know which one to pick either so, he did the only thing he could think of. He closed his eyes and pointed. Sora walked over to that wall and proceeded to pick off the berries that spelled out the phrase. She divided the berries between them and they ate hungrily as the hedge wall disappeared.

Sora and Tai's eyes went wide when they realized that they had opened the door to a maze. Then again, they could have been trapped in the maze all along. Realizing they had no choice, the three walked headlong into the maze.

&&&

The hedges that surrounded the clearing, containing T.K., Kari, and Biyomon, were now covered with dark purple berries. All except one wall, that is. Like the berries on Tai and Sora's hedges, these berries also took the form of something. They were arrows that pointed to the wall without berries.

"I think it is obvious we are supposed to pick that wall," T.K. stated, indicating the wall without berries.

"The question is how do we pick it," Kari returned.

"Maybe we take the berries from the two closest arrows," T.K. suggested.

"It's worth a shot, I guess," Kari responded.

They each started picking the berries. Once they had a handful of berries, the wall disappeared, revealing the entrance to a maze. T.K. and Kari looked at each other before shrugging and entering the maze. Biyomon followed behind as all three enjoyed the sweet berries.

&&&

Davis woke up to find Ken and Yolie staring at berry covered hedge walls, with looks of concentration on their faces. The berries were blue and seemed to be written in some confusing language.

"The best I can figure out is that we are supposed to choose one of these walls. Where it leads is a whole different story," Yolie stated.

"Maybe we should let Davis pick," Ken suggested. Yolie turned to look at Davis.

"You actually trust me to make a good choice?" Davis asked.

"Well, we've been pondering over this for a while and neither of us can figure it out so, we might as well let you try," Yolie responded.

"All right then," Davis said. He looked at each wall and finally decided to just pick one.

Davis plucked a couple of handfuls of berries off one of the walls and divided them up between the three of them. The wall moved to reveal the passageway of a maze. Before anyone could comment, the other three walls sank into the ground revealing more passageways.

"I hate to say it, but it looks like we are in the center of a huge maze," Ken stated.

&&&

Cody, Joe, Gommamon, and Augumon had been walking through their section of hedge maze for about an hour. They'd finished their yellow berries a long time ago and were eager to find the exit. So far they seemed to be going in circles. Though they hadn't come to any dead ends, they didn't exactly feel like they were getting anywhere.

Joe called for a break and they stopped to rest. The two Digimon had tried to make an exit, but the hedges didn't budge.

"I hate mazes," Cody muttered. "Especially ones that don't seem to have an exit and are probably really huge."

Sadly, Joe had to agree. Most people could think of better things to do with their time than negotiating their way through a maze.

Having rested, Joe, Cody, and the digimon continued on their way, hoping to find an exit soon.

&&&

In another part of the maze, a trio wasn't as lucky.

"If I come across one more dead end I swear I'll scream!" Mimi stated in frustration.

Matt, Armadillomon and she had been walking for hours only to always come to a dead end. Their orange berries had been consumed and now they were searching for a way out. Matt called for a break and the three sat down. Mimi leaned against one of the hedge walls. She closed her eyes and tried to think about something happy. Mimi felt something brush past her leg, but ignored it. Something brushed the skin on her face, but Mimi dismissed it as a breeze. Suddenly she felt something tighten around her waist. Mimi's eyes were open in an instant. She looked down only to find thick vines wrapping themselves around her.

Matt's eyes shot open at Mimi's strangled cry. He looked over at the brunette beauty only to find her covered in constricting vines. Armadillomon seemed unable to figure out a way to help. The look on Mimi's face scared Matt. He wracked his brain, trying to come up with a solution. He looked again at Cody's digimon as if begging for a solution. The digimon shrugged, indicating that he too was stumped.

Matt could see tears forming in Mimi's eyes as the vines continued to move. He remembered that animals could sometimes be soothed by music and wondered if it would work on vegetation. It was the only idea he had. Matt reached into his pocket and pulled out his harmonica. Harmonica music filled the air as Matt played.

Matt looked at Mimi. His plan didn't seem to be working. What was he going to do? How would he explain this to her parents. His thoughts kept getting worse until he noticed something. The vines had stopped moving. Armadillomon took the cue and began pulling the vines off Mimi as Matt continued to play.

Mimi gasped for air as the last of the vines fell off. Matt stopped playing and kneeled beside her. Mimi looked up into Matt's ice blue eyes before collapsing into his arms. Matt held her close as she recovered from her ordeal. In truth, Matt was more than content to hold her forever.

"Thanks," Mimi breathed as she laid her head against his chest.

"You're welcome…princess," Matt replied.

&&&

Tai, Sora, and Palmon had been walking for quit some time. Sora swore they were going in circles while Tai insisted they were heading in a direction that would lead them to the end. All the while, Palmon was trying to use her knowledge of plants to free them from this maze. If anything, it helped distract the digimon from the growing argument behind her.

"For the hundredth time we are not going in circles. There isn't a single thing we've passed twice," Tai stated.

How would you know? Everything looks the same!" Sora retorted.

"Well, if you're such an expert at mazes why don't you show me the way out," Tai shot back.

"Don't start with me, Yagami," Sora seethed. She reached in her pocket and found a blue ribbon from one of the floral arrangements she'd helped her mother with they day before she found herself in this crazy place. "You want proof. Fine. I'll tie this ribbon here and if we pass it again, we are walking in circles."

The ribbon was tied and the group set off again with Tai leading and Palmon following. Thirty minutes later, Tai spotted something blue up ahead. A pit opened up in his stomach as he realized it was the ribbon and Sora had been right all along. Exhausted, the three collapsed on the ground and Palmon was grateful they didn't have the energy to start another argument.

Tai watched Sora fall asleep, then he noticed a side path he hadn't seen before. He decided to go check it out while Sora slept. The fragrant aroma of roses assaulted Tai before he reached the source. A large rose bush sat in the middle of a clearing. Thinking that this would be a good way to apologize to Sora, Tai plucked one of the roses from the bush. One of the thorns stuck Tai's finger, drawing blood. Before Tai could investigate the wound, he collapsed on the ground.

Sora opened her eyes, realizing she had fallen asleep. She looked around and found Palmon beside her, but Tai was no where in sight. Concerned about Tai, Sora decided to go looking for him. Palmon followed as Sora walked. A path branched off to the right and Sora decided to take it. Up ahead was a large rose bush, but a more disturbing sight lay in front of the bush.

Sora gasped at the sight of Tai sprawled on the ground, a single rose in his outstretched hand. Sora's fingers trembled as she searched for Tai's pulse. She eventually found it, but it was very weak. Palmon felt useless as tears streamed from Sora's face. She couldn't help it. She realized that the thought of loosing Tai was too great. Worse, he had been trying to apologize to her when this happened. As Sora cried, her tears fell on Tai. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice.

Tai felt something wet on his face and opened his eyes to see Sora kneeling beside him, tears falling from her eyes. He dropped the rose in his hand and sat up. Tai wrapped his arms around Sora, in an effort to comfort her. Sora stopped crying as she felt strong arms encircle her. She opened her eyes and saw that it was Tai that was holding her. Sora melted into the comfort of being near him. Though she wasn't sure how Tai was cured, she didn't really care.

&&&

T.K., Kari and Biyomon were finding their journey through the maze more tedious than difficult. They hadn't encountered any dead ends or bobby traps. In fact, it was almost like a walk in the park. After about an hour of walking, they rounded a corner and heard voices.

"We must be getting close to something," Kari stated.

"I agree," T.K. replied. "Perhaps we should head towards the voices."

The trio made their way towards the sound. The closer they got, the more it sounded like yelling or arguing.

"That sounds like Davis," T.K. said.

"I think Yolie's with them. They seem to be arguing over something. Let's see if we can find them," Kari added.

They turned left and found Yolie and Davis yelling at the top of their lungs while Ken sat off the side with his fingers as far in his ears as they would go.

"Hey guys. Miss us?" Kari asked, hoping to break up the fight.

Yolie and Davis stopped fighting and turned to see who had spoken.

Davis shrieked. "Mirage! Mirage! Don't let it eat me!"

Yolie smacked him. "You idiot! Mirages only exist in the desert not here in a maze." She shook her head in disbelief as Ken tried to stifle his laughter.

T.K. and Kari looked at each other, them back at the trio in front of them.

"How long have you guys been here?" Kari asked.

"Sadly the entire day," Yolie stated wearily. "We started in the exact center of the maze and we haven't moved since then. Brainless here refuses to budge based on some stupid video game he's played where anyone who enters a maze dies a horrible death."

Davis just folded his arms across his chest and grunted at the violet haired girl.

Ken walked over to Kari and T.K. "I'm so glad you guys showed up," He told them. "I don't think I could have taken another minute of them arguing. I knew this was going to happen, eventually, but I honestly don't know how to stop it."

T.K. put a hand on Ken's shoulder. "We understand. Those two have been at it long before you joined our group. Just wait, something will come along that forces the two to work together and they'll stop arguing. They're just like Matt and Tai."

Ken seemed a bit more relaxed at T.K.'s comment. The group started discussing ideas on where they should go next. They'd almost reached a decision when they heard a commotion from one of the paths.

"I am so sick of this stupid maze," a female voice stated. "If it's not killer vines, it's crazed hornets or endless dead ends. I swear if something doesn't change soon, I'm going to loose it."

The six exchanged looks. Before they had a chance to comment, two people and a digimon came into view.

"Matt?" T.K. asked, surprised.

"Mimi," Yolie chimed in.

"And Armadillomon," Ken added.

"Man is it good to see actual people again," Mimi commented, relief reflecting in her voice.

"How long have you guys been here?" Matt questioned.

"Well, Ken, Yolie, and I have been here since this morning and T.K., Kari and Biyomon just showed up," Davis answered.

"I hear voices. Some of the others might be nearby."

"That sounds like my brother's digimon, Augumon," Kari said.

It didn't take long for Augumon, Gommamon, Joe and Cody to appear from another path in the maze. The first thing they noticed, was that Joe was carrying Cody piggyback style.

"What happened to you guys?" Davis questioned.

Joe put Cody down, gently, before answering the question. "Let's just say that his adventure hasn't exactly been a walk in the park. Cody sprained his ankle while we were being chased by some really nasty beetles. We also had some carnivorous plants to watch out for as well."

Everyone soon began discussing the obstacles they had to overcome while they'd been trapped in this maze. They didn't notice when Tai, Sora and Palmon joined the group.

"Who said you guys could start the party without us," Palmon asked.

Everyone fell silent as they realized the rest of their team had arrived.

"Oh Palmon, I missed you so much," Mimi stated, embracing her digimon.

"It's good to see you guys made it through safely," Kari said.

"Any ideas on how we get out of here," Tai questioned.

"I think we can assume that any of the paths you guys came from will eventually lead to dead ends," Ken began. "Therefore, the other path must lead us out of here."

Everyone seemed to agree with Ken's theory. All they had to do know was remember which path they'd come from. A few minutes later, the Digidestined knew which path hadn't been traversed and they began the journey through the maze.

The digimon took turns carrying Cody as they wondered through the many twists and turns and dangerous obstacles. Several hours later, the group decided to take a break. Tired, hungry, and fed up with the enclosed environment, they were beginning to doubt they'd ever see daylight again. It was around sunset when they heard a new sound.

"Sounds like the ocean," Sora stated, slightly bewildered.

"Smells like it too," Mimi added dreamily.

The Digidestined turned two corners and were assaulted with a refreshing breeze.

"Yes! We are finally out of that horrible maze," Mimi and Yolie said together.

"It smells like someone knew we were starving," Davis commented.

Sure enough, a smorgasbord of food had been laid out buffet style.

"Reminds me of a Hawaiian luau," Mimi spoke.

The Digidestined dug in and ate until they were full. Afterwards, they admired their surroundings. Several palm trees lined the beach and hammocks were hung from them. A bonfire had been lit and everyone took some time to admire the change of scenery.

Fatigue soon set in and each one claimed a hammock for the night. They soon fell into a peaceful sleep. Little did they know they were being watched from somewhere nearby.

AN: I hope you liked this chapter. It was so hard to write that I almost gave up on this story completely. Thankfully I made it through and now have several ideas for future chapters. The next chapter should be up within a month. Let me know what you think and ideas are always welcomed.


	6. Ignoring the Sirens call

Authors Note: Here's the next chapter. I hope you guys like it. There's not as much humor in this, but it should still be enjoyable.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, for good reason.

Chapter 6: Ignoring the Sirens call

Everyone woke to find the table full of food, once again, along with a note. Tai picked up the note and read it.

_You have yet to notice that one of your friends is missing. It is a trick of the maze. Sadly, retrieving your friend will not be easy. My sisters have longed for some company and they tend to prefer young, human males. I highly recommend that you count him as lost and continue your quest. Loosing one person from your group is better than cutting your group in half. If you desire to free him, I caution you to send the strongest and most cunning of your female warriors to fight for his freedom. Many men have entered the sea and been lost to it. Such is the way things are. Banshee's are easy to fight when compared to ignoring the Siren's call. If you desire to save your friend, choose your warrior. She mustn't eat anything for the evening meal and she must wait for me, alone, under the moonlight by the waters edge. If she does not return in three days, continue without her. Eat all I have put before you. This is the most important thing of all._

_Sincerely,_

_Juliet, daughter of the Sea King_

"Who's missing?" Davis asked as he counted the people in their group.

"Izzy," Joe stated.

The Digidestined ate the food before them as they discussed the note.

"We can't leave without Izzy. We need him to help us with things in the Digital World," Mimi stated. "Besides, he's our friend and we shouldn't turn our backs on our friends."

"I'm not so sure we shouldn't just continue on," Cody added. "Sure he's our friend, but Juliet has a point. Loosing one member is much better than loosing more."

"Exactly," Davis chimed in. "Think about it. If our first 'female warrior' fails, are we going to keep sending more until the sea has claimed all our girls?"

The Digidestined pondered the two points.

"Let's take a vote," Tai decided. "All in favor of continuing and leaving Izzy, raise your hands." Davis, Cody, and Joe, raised their hands. "All in favor of selecting someone to free Izzy, raise your hands." Matt, Mimi, Sora, Tai, T.K., Kari, Ken, and Yolie, raised their hands. "I guess we rescue Izzy. Now we just have to figure out who's going to go."

The rest of the morning and late into the afternoon, the Digidestined pondered over their four ladies. Though Mimi was brave and very loyal, she lacked the mental capacity to outwit someone. (A.N. I don't mean to offend Mimi lovers out there, I'm one myself, but I needed a reason for her not to be chosen. Sorry.) Kari was voted out because she chose not to take on the task. She didn't want to put herself in a position that may end up similar to the Dark Ocean. That left Sora and Yolie.

Both Sora and Yolie were strong, independent and strong willed. There was no doubt that either one could complete the task. After going around in circles and ending up no closer to a decision, they decided to draw straws. The looser would be the back up, if the first on failed. Cody found two sticks and made one shorter than the other. The one who picked the shorter stick would go first. Sora and Yolie drew their sticks and Yolie got the short one. Tonight she would venture into the sea to find Izzy and bring him back.

Though the food looked tempting, Yolie followed instructions and didn't consume any of it. After awhile everyone drifted off to sleep. Yolie was puzzled because she didn't feel the least bit tired. After milling the thought over, she came to the conclusion that the food must be drugged with sleeping pills. As Yolie sat by the ocean, she took in the scenery. It was exactly like an island paradise. A soft, sweet music reached her ears. It was very relaxing, but Yolie could clearly hear the underlying warning of the song.

"That's the Siren's call," A young woman, about Yolie's age, informed. She had rich honey brown hair and amber colored eyes. She was lightly tanned and wore a turquoise tank top and forest green shorts. Yolie noticed her bare feet. "I'm Juliet," The girl introduced.

"I'm Yolie," the violet haired Digidestined returned.

"By now you probably realize that the food is drugged. I have no choice. The Siren's call is quite formidable. To the sensitive, female ear, it screams of a beautiful melody with undertones of a warning to stay away. Female competition not wanted. To the less sensitive, male ear, it is a seductive call that no man can resist. It lures them into whatever trap has been set. The worst part is, it is hypnotic and can be used to influence a person's subconscious."

Yolie processed the information. She now realized what Juliet had meant when she said the task wouldn't be easy. If Izzy had been hypnotized, it could become rather difficult to return with him.

"If you are ready, we should start. The night won't get any younger," Juliet stated. She handed a vial of violet liquid to Yolie. "Drink this. It tastes awful, but you'll need it. Trust me."

As Juliet began to wade into the water, Yolie eyed the vial. Taking a glance back at her sleeping comrades. She uncorked the vial and drank every drop of the liquid. Once she was finished, Yolie followed Juliet out to sea.

The brunette was a bit ahead of Yolie when she suddenly dove underwater. The violet haired girl tried not to panic, when Juliet resurfaced next to her. Yolie glanced down at the brunette only to find a green fish tail where her legs had once been. One thought hit Yolie. Juliet is a mermaid! A sharp pain surged through Yolie's stomach before shooting through her legs. Yolie felt her legs give out beneath her and she plunged into the water as her legs fused together of their own accord. Yolie panicked and attempted to reach the surface for air. When her legs didn't respond correctly, Yolie panicked further and released the breath she'd been holding. She took a deep breath and realized she could breath underwater. Yolie glanced down at her legs and saw a dark purple fish tail where her legs should have been, and let out a cry of surprise. Yolie was now a mermaid as well.

Juliet released a bubbly giggle as she swam towards Yolie. She showed the violet haired girl how to swim using her tail. Yolie picked it up, rather quickly and was amazed at how much faster she could swim. Juliet led the way and Yolie followed. Yolie was awestruck by how beautiful it was. The colors of the coral were so vivid as well as the many different kinds of fish that swam around. Yolie was convinced that this was a much better way to learn about life under the sea than watching any nature program. A family of seahorses darted inside a cave as the two mermaids swam by. In fact many of the ocean inhabitants had gone to bed for the night. Yolie noticed the silhouette of a shark above her. Juliet noticed her hesitation.

"Just keep moving. The longer we linger, the more attention we draw to ourselves," the brunette mermaid instructed.

Yolie nodded and continued on. After what seemed like hours, the two reached a rather large rock formation. The music Yolie had heard above could also be heard coming from the rock formation. At first it just looked like a plain black rock, but as Yolie and Juliet got closer they began to see the outlines of a beautiful palace.

"If your friend is here, he'll be either in one of the rooms of the palace or the grotto below," Juliet stated.

Yolie followed Juliet through one of the windows near the top. Once inside, Yolie was amazed at what she saw. A beautiful bed, probably made from sponges, covered in a blue sea silk blanket and a seaweed canopy, sat on one side of the room. A pink coral dresser and vanity sat across from the bed and a few different shell bottles lined the top of the vanity.

"This is my room," Juliet told Yolie.

"It's beautiful," Yolie replied.

"Thanks. Now follow me and keep quiet. My sisters love to harass new comers," Juliet spoke.

The two swam through the beautifully carved archway of Juliet's bedroom. They found themselves in a hallway that was long and seemed to branch out in different places with no rhyme or reason. After following Juliet for several minutes, the brunette suddenly ducked into a darkened doorway. She pulled Yolie in with her and covered the Digidestineds mouth.

"Did you see the look on his face when I told him I was dumping him? It was positively priceless," a sugary sweet female voice said.

"I know," a more melodious female voice answered. "I never knew merman looked so cute when they pouted." The two laughed.

"It's a shame Myra has to hog the red head all to herself," the first voice continued.

"He's just so much fun. I never thought Coral would make him retrieve a sharks tooth for her. Then again I never knew how much fun it was to watch him do it," the second voice returned.

"Poor thing almost lost his life too." There was a pause before they burst into laughter again.

"Lyric has him totally convinced he's a merman. I do love playing with stupid mortal boys."

"Good kissers too."

The voices eventually drifted from the hall and Juliet removed her hand from Yolie's mouth.

"So, Myra has him now," Juliet muttered as she seemed lost in thought. She turned to Yolie and grabbed her hand. "Come on. We need to get to the Location Chamber."

The two raced through the corridors in a dizzying speed. Yolie was completely lost and knew she'd never find her way out if she needed to. Juliet swam into a room and slammed into someone, causing the two to tumble through the water before coming to a stop.

"I apologize, Trevon. I wasn't watching where I was going," Juliet said.

"It's all right, Juliet. I wasn't watching where I was going either," Trevon replied. He glanced over at Yolie. "Who's this?"

"Um, this is my new friend Yolie," Juliet introduced reluctantly.

"She's an outsider," Trevon whispered in a reprimanding tone.

"I know. She's here for her friend. The one that Swanie lured when the hedges appeared," Juliet told him.

"Good luck. I doubt the poor fellow even knows his own name anymore. Myra and the others have him so confused he'd probably join a school of Dolphins, thinking they were his family," Trevon stated.

"I know," Juliet replied, dejectedly. "But I have to try. I figured someone who knew him might have a better chance of it than I would."

"Did you use the pearl nectar for the others like her?" Trevon asked.

"Of course, but I'm running low. I need to make some more, if this doesn't work. It's bad enough that one of their males is here, but there's more above," Juliet responded.

"How many?"

"I counted seven."

Trevon let out a low whistle. "I'm scared to ask how many females they have."

"Three more, besides Yolie here," Juliet informed.

Trevon shook his head. "I thought the last group was bad."

"Please help us, Trevon. The sooner we find him, the better," Juliet pleaded.

Trevon looked at Juliet, then Yolie. "All right, but don't get your hopes up."

"Thank you." Juliet threw her arms around him in a hug.

Trevon and Juliet tuned to study the map in front of them. It was supposed to tell them the location of each mermaid and merman under the sea. To Yolie, it was nothing but gibberish. A bunch of multi colored dots on a map of the sea floor.

"There," Trevon stated, pointing to a gold dot. A red flashing dot appeared next to it. "That's Myra all right and it looks like Yolie's friend is with her."

Trevon left the room through the doorway and headed down the hall. Juliet grabbed Yolie's arm and followed the merman. Again the journey was a dizzying one for Yolie as the corridors and rooms seemed to fly by. The violet haired girl was glad that Juliet had a hold of her. There was no way that Yolie could have swam that fast. As it was, Yolie could bearly make out Trevon's blonde hair or blue tail as he sped in front of them.

Yolie nearly slammed into Juliet as they came to an abrupt stop. Yolie noticed that they were at a large opening to a cave of some sort. Yolie figured that this must be the grotto Juliet had mentioned on their approach to the palace. Trevon and Juliet exchanged looks before they began to slowly creep towards the entrance. Yolie followed them. Once near the entrance, Yolie could make out voices.

"It's Myra all right," Juliet whispered. "Always hated my older sister."

Yolie could relate. Older sisters could be annoying sometimes. The three crept closer as they tried to make out what was being said. No matter how close they got, Yolie still couldn't understand a word. The three rounded a corner and Myra came into view. She had blue hair and green eyes. She wore a beautiful turquoise dress with a dark blue tail jutting out beneath it.

"Why can't I understand a word she's saying?" Yolie asked Juliet, in a whisper.

"Because she's not talking. She's singing. Mortals can't understand the words, they just hear the music," Juliet explained.

Yolie inched closer and was finally able to see the other being with Myra. "That's Izzy," Yolie informed Trevon and Juliet as they come up behind her.

Myra stopped what she was doing and looked towards the entrance. She spotted the three merpeople right away. "Hello, brother and sister dear. Did you bring me a new playmate?"

"No Myra," Juliet stated. "We're here to take your old one away!"

Myra laughed. "Good luck. I doubt this one will ever want to leave. Isn't that right my pet."

Izzy didn't respond. He just continued to stare straight ahead.

"You know how much dad hates it when you girls play these tricks. It's not funny and you need to stop," Trevon stated, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

Myra laughed again. "I'm not letting this pathetic piece of carcass they have the nerve to call a man go and there's nothing you can do to make me."

"Don't talk about my friend that way!" Yolie fumed. "He's done more good than you'll ever know. Besides, where I come from you're just the sort of creatures we'd eat for breakfast. Uncaring, unfeeling, and without any regard for the sanctity of life."

Now Myra was mad. "You have no right to talk to me that way, foolish fish eating outsider. I have more power than you realize."

"So do I," Yolie returned, matching Myra's tone.

"What are you doing Yolie?" Juliet asked. "The only way to handle Myra is to reason with her."

"Don't worry, Juliet. My friends and I were brought to this world for a reason. No stuck up spoiled brat is going to stop me from getting my friend back."

Myra swung her tail at Yolie hitting the violet haired girl in the stomach. Yolie flew backwards towards the cave wall. Myra gloated as Yolie tried to get her barrings. Yolie blinked a couple of times to get her vision straight. She looked over at Izzy and was alarmed to see that he didn't look good. Yolie knew that she had to get him out of here quickly.

Yolie looked around the cave for a way to distract Myra. She glanced at the ceiling and noticed several loose rocks above Myra. Yolie decided to use the same technique Myra had shown her. Yolie turned sideways in the water and used her dark purple tail to hit the wall. The cave gave a slight shudder, but it was enough to dislodge the rocks. Myra cried out as they hit her. Yolie, Juliet, and Trevon used the distraction and swam towards Izzy. Trevon grabbed one of the red heads arms as Juliet grabbed the other one.

The three sped out of the cave and as far away from Myra as they could get. Yolie heard a noise and turned to look. She saw Myra coming after them in a rage. Yolie wracked her brain for an idea. She remembered the Fairy of the Wood telling them, before they began their journey, that there were other digimon in this place. Some were turned bad by the evil here, while others may still be good. Yolie decided to test that theory by closing her eyes and concentrating on calling an underwater digimon to help her. Yolie opened her eyes to discover that Myra was almost upon her. Thankfully Juliet and Trevon had gotten Izzy a good distance away. Yolie curled her fingers into fists and prepared herself for a fight. This was one Siren she was going to teach a lesson to.

Myra sped up, charging towards Yolie at a speed the violet haired girl didn't think was possible underwater. Yolie prepared herself for the impact but none came. Yolie smiled as she saw Myra held fast in the coils of a mighty Seedra. The blue haired mermaid was furious. Yolie swam in front of Myra. "This is why you should get to know someone before you make them your enemy. Trust me, there's more where he came from." Yolie thanked the Seedra before swimming off to find her friends.

Yolie found Trevon and Juliet resting with Izzy on a rock outcropping not that far away. They waved Yolie over and she stopped to catch her breath. Everyone was concerned for Izzy. He really didn't look good.

"It looks like the transformation spell is wearing off," Juliet stated. "He needs air and some familiar company."

"Then let's not waste anymore time," Trevon said. He wrapped an arm around the red heads waist and headed towards the surface.

Juliet was about to follow her brother when she turned to look at Yolie. The violet haired Digidestined was gasping for air and her tail seemed to shimmer in waves. "You need air badly as well," Juliet observed. "That fight with Myra did more harm then good. You're just not used to exerting yourself in such depths." She placed an arm around Yolie's waist and kicked as hard and as fast as she could towards the surface.

The sun was rising when Trevon reached the surface. Juliet surfaced a couple of minutes later. The brother and sister pulled the two Digidestined toward the shore. By the time they reached the shore, Izzy and Yolie had returned to their normal appearance. Juliet pulled herself on the beach while Trevon retreated back to the ocean. As Juliet's tail dried, it separated into a pair of legs. Juliet checked on Izzy and was pleased to find him breathing normally. She moved on to Yolie, but couldn't find any signs of her breathing. When Juliet put her ear to Yolie's mouth, all Juliet could hear was the ocean. Juliet was trying to figure out what to do when she heard footsteps. The brunette looked up to see one of Yolie's male companions approaching.

"Is everything all right?" He questioned.

"She's not breathing and I don't know what to do," Juliet explained to the dark haired young man.

He knelt beside Yolie and tried to find her pulse. He found none, confirming Juliets assessment. Don't die on me now, he thought as he proceeded to perform CPR on Yolie. Juliet watched helplessly as he worked. All the brunette could do was pray it would work.

Izzy stirred and sat up. He noticed Juliet, then looked beyond her to the current crises unfolding. He moved next to Juliet and observed the scene. After several agonizing minutes, Yolie started sputtering and coughing up seawater, as well as a few disgusting morsels from her previous meal.

Yolie looked over at the person who saved her life and threw her arms around him. "Thanks Ken," She said, bearly above a whisper.

"Anytime," He returned, hugging her back.

A commotion, further up the beach, caused the two to break apart. The rest of the Digidestined were waking up and moving around. One by one, they noticed the four sitting by the ocean and made their way towards them. Ken helped Yolie stand as Juliet and Izzy also rose.

"We're glad to see you were successful," Tai told Yolie.

"So am I. Guys, this is Juliet," Yolie introduced. "She's a real live mermaid. Juliet, these are my friends. We're called Digidestined where we come from because our responsibility is to protect the Digital World."

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you. I apologize profusely for my sisters' behavior. They can be a little single minded at times. Although your friend has returned, he may not remember much. Be gentle and patient with him. I must also advise you to head towards the Norsouthern mountain range as soon as you have eaten. I can not protect you from the Siren's call this evening. Once you have reached the Poinsettia meadow, you will be out of danger and can make camp for the night. May your travels be successful, chosen ones," Juliet responded.

The Digidestined did as they were instructed. The path was easy to follow and they made good progress. Each Digidestined rotated asking Izzy questions, in the hopes of finding out how much he remembered. After a couple of hours of this, it seemed almost completely random what Izzy remembered and what he didn't. As the sun began to sink behind the mountains, the Digidestined finally reached Poinsettia meadow. They made camp for the night. There was no telling what tomorrow would bring.

Authors Note: Well I hope you liked this chapter. The next one is a work in progress so just be patient, I promise it's on it's way.


	7. Size Doesn't Matter Right?

Authors Note: I finally updated this thing. ;) I know it's been awhile since I last updated, but life kind of got in the way. I know you don't want to hear a bunch of excuses and such so, let's just say I had to move and stuff got lost but I promise I will get around to finishing this. I won't keep you from the story but please read the note at the end; it explains my plans for the rest of this story. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or any Digimon related characters. This story is a good example of why I don't. ;)

Chapter 7: Size doesn't matter. Right?

Izzy was the first one up. Oddly enough he wasn't all that surprised to find Davis asleep when he should have been keeping guard. After taking care of business, he surveyed the area. There really wasn't much to see. Basically a meadow full of poinsettias filled the landscape. A mountain range could be seen in the distance and the forest they had come through. The barrier of the crest of Knowledge sat down and tried to enjoy the calm surroundings while his companions slept. Several minutes later, it became obvious it was not possible to do so. He was plagued with the sad fact some parts of his memory were missing. Memories which ranged from the personal to the non essential. He was frustrated by the fact he could not remember some of his fellow companions. Some of them he could remember but could not place their names, others he could not remember at all. Worst of all was he could not remember how he had ended up in this predicament.

Izzy knew he was an important member of this group and someone had risked their life for him. He just didn't know how he was important. His eyes landed on the orange, pineapple laptop which was peeking out from his backpack. Why would I carry a computer with me? He wondered. Slowly he made his way over to the laptop and pulled it out. After several tries he managed to figure out how to turn it on. After exploring all the different things on the computer, he came to the conclusion he was a genius, the member of a group called the Digidestined, and quite proficient in things related to a place called the Digital World.

As he scanned the contents of the personal files, he began to recall things. He was beginning to remember what led up to his current state. Izzy closed his eyes as he remembered the night he was led away from the group. A beautiful music had filled his ears, in the middle of the night, and caused him to awaken. As the music filled his senses, the desire for sleep slipped away to be replaced with a need to find the source of the voice. He paused in his memory to sort something out. Izzy knew, from what his companions had told him, he had been the only male lured away from the camp. Why?

Izzy wracked his brain and found a stray observation which had been deemed unimportant and thus pushed aside. As the red head was being ushered towards the melodious sound, he recalled seeing bushes or hedges rising from the ground. Essentially they cut him off from the rest of the group. The more Izzy pondered this strange coincidence the more he realized there must be an unwritten rule in this place, where no one can be affected by two equally powerful magic's at the same time. Broken down, the rule is interpreted as simply a way of protecting people from being overpowered to the point of destruction.

Izzy made sure he remembered this new revelation. Applying it to his current memory, he realized he had been influenced by the strange music and only he had heard it. Due to this the hedges didn't affect him and he was not trapped inside them like his friends. Had the hedges not grown up and blocked the music's pull, he would not have been the only Digidestined in need of saving and the group would be worse off then they are now.

Realizing this truth and making sure not to forget it, Izzy could now slip back into the memory which was slowly returning to him. After being called away from the group and seeing the hedges emerge from the ground, Izzy recalled seeing a vast expanse of ocean. It seemed strange to him to see this much water in a place which hadn't hinted at having such a great find. None the less, the red head continued to follow the entrancing music towards the sea.

Izzy recalled being vaguely aware of the sea swallowing him, being given the potion which turned him into a merman and the cluster of mermaids who seemed to follow his every move. Beautiful young ladies who couldn't seem to get enough of him. Izzy had no memory of what they made him do while he was in their company and after what Yolie had told him, he was positive he didn't want to know. In fact, the next thing he remembered was waking up on the beach and watching Ken trying to save Yolie's life. In a way, he found it strange he didn't remember much of his underwater adventure. At the same time, he was glad he didn't.

A few other memories began to return to Izzy as he began to immerse himself in things which were familiar to him. By the time the other Digidestined woke up, the bearer of Knowledge remembered all of them as well as a few recent memories which had eluded him before.

"How are you today, Izzy?" Mimi greeted the red head.

"Quite well actually," Izzy replied. He watched as Mimi fixed breakfast for the group. "It was nice of Juliet to send the leftover food with us."

"It sure was," Mimi agreed.

The rest of the group began to gather around for breakfast. As they ate, they all suggested ideas for what they should do next. After much discussion, it was decided they would head towards the Norsouthern mountain range. Once everyone had eaten their fill, they packed up camp and set off for the mountains.

There were no paths or trails to be found so, the Digidestined just cut a straight line through the meadow. After several hours had gone by, they finally discovered why this was called Poinsettia Valley. Stretching for miles in every direction lay hundreds of poinsettia plants in all its natural shades. As they wandered through the strange plant, Mimi began explaining what the plant was all about, as well as its uses in America during Christmas. The sun soon began to set and the Digidestined made camp for the night.

The next morning, Sora woke up to a weird, tickling sensation on her feet. She opened her eyes only to have a pair of rather large black ones stare back at her. Without realizing it, a rather loud scream escaped her lips. The pair of eyes backed up and Sora could clearly tell they belonged to an ant-like creature. Needless to say, her scream succeeded in waking everyone up. The ant decided it had enough excitement for one day and left. Sora noticed her surroundings as the rest of the group rubbed the sleep from their eyes.

"What's wrong Sora?" Tai asked.

"I think we have a huge problem guys," Sora replied.

Everyone looked around and had to agree. All the natural plant life appeared to be ten feet tall if not taller.

"I hate to say it guys, but it appears we have been shrunk," Tai stated.

"Wait! I remember something like this on a movie I saw once," Davis spoke up. "It was called Honey I shrunk the Kids. This guy was an inventor and he made a shrink ray that accidentally shrunk his and the neighbors kids. They somehow got thrown out with the trash and had to trek through the whole backyard to in order to get back home and returned to normal size."

"Great, just great! It's bad enough I have to deal with being smaller than a toothpick, I also have to deal with weird, freaky insects I've never seen before that probably thinks I taste delicious," Mimi vented.

Matt grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "Don't worry guys. We'll find a way to get through this just like every other crazy thing we've had to deal with so far."

"All right then. We should probably establish where we are and where we need to go," Izzy suggested.

"I could try climbing one of these plants to get a better view of where we are," T.K. offered.

Everyone agreed. Once T.K. had successfully climbed the plant and found their current location, they started walking in the general direction they wanted to go. By the end of the day, they had started to realize it was going to take longer than they wanted it to. It would probably take weeks to cross a distance that normally would only take a day. As the sun started to set, they found an abandoned hole and used it as a makeshift cave. They were lucky that they hadn't encountered anything dangerous, but they knew it was only a matter of time.

A week had passed since they had been shrunk. The Digidestined were unhappy and very stressed out. Every morning T.K. would climb to the top of a plant to sort out their location. This morning T.K. had just determined how far off course they were and was about to climb down when he heard a high pitched scream. "Probably Mimi saw something gross with six legs," he thought. He cautiously climbed back down. Once he was low enough and could see the ground clearly, he realized why he'd heard someone scream.

The Digidestined and some of their Digimon were surrounded by very ferocious looking creatures. The creatures were a cross between rats and spiders. The creatures were only slightly larger than the Digidestined and their sharp fangs glistened with either drool or poison. Biyomon, Augumon, Armadillomon, and Palmon were discussing their best ideas for getting rid of these creatures. Kari's eyes darted around and she noticed T.K. crouched behind the plant he'd climbed earlier. Kari was glad at least one of them was safe.

The Digimon eventually decided on a plan and fanned out around the Digidestined. Simultaneously, they used their best attacks on the rat-spider creatures but nothing seemed to work. Suddenly, the ear splitting scream of a hawk was heard before two of the birds swooped down towards the Digidestined. The two birds of prey easily gathered the rat-spiders in their deadly talons. As they flew off, a piece of parchment floated down to the Digidestined. T.K. re-joined the others as Matt picked up the note. He read it aloud.

If you need to get somewhere quick

Here's a neat little trick

Tap the ground twice with a maple stick

Then stomp your foot thrice

Count to eight, then continue to wait

If the ground begins to rumble

Try not to stumble

It's just a couple of friends coming to help

Don't be surprised at the creatures you find

Just thank them and climb on their back

Tell them where to go so, they'll stay on track

And you'll soon be there in record time

Just remember one thing

You must not forget to bring

Tools for making a light

Your rides will need them to stay on course

'Cause they may need to travel through the night

"Interesting," Joe mussed.

"Well, whatever these creatures are, it's got to be better than trudging along the way we are," Cody added.

"Yeah. At this rate we'll be old and gray by the time we reach our destination," Davis agreed.

The Chosen children decided to do as the parchment instructed. Sora agreed to summon the creatures while Joe and Cody double checked their supplies. The others helped to gather equipment to make torches once night came. Sora returned with a maple branch to find everyone else ready and waiting. She followed the instructions carefully. A few minutes later the ground began to shake. Everyone did their best to stay upright. They were soon surrounded by three creatures. One of the creatures resembled an ant, another one a tarantula, and the third a large gray rat.

"I call dibs on the ant," Mimi declared. She knew there was no way she was getting on either a spider or a filthy rat.

"I say we let the girls ride the ant and then the rest of us will draw straws for the other two," Davis suggested.

"That's not a bad idea, Davis," Tai stated.

They followed Davis's idea and ended up with the four girls (Mimi, Sora, Kari, and Yolie) on the ant. Davis, Tai, T.K. and Ken on the rat. Joe, Cody, Izzy and Matt on the spider. Tai took the lead, the girls followed his group and the spider group took up the rear. They continued their original course towards the mountains, hoping to find a cure for their little size predicament soon.

As they traveled, it soon became night and the group soon found it hard to stay awake even with the knowledge if they fell asleep they were bound to fall off their ride and be left behind. Tai spotted a berry patch to their right and instructed everyone to pick a berry as they passed by. These berries would serve two purposes. One, it would feed the Digidestined who were long overdue for a meal and two, the tartness of the fruit would help keep them awake. The berries seemed to do the trick and soon everyone was alert as they continued to trek through ht night.

The sun shone bright and early the next day. The Digidestined seemed to be growing tired again, but luck seemed to be on their side as another berry patch came into view, this time on the left. Everyone picked a berry and was once again alert and content with the monotonous journey. It was early afternoon when the group broke through the grass and saw a huge clearing ahead of them. Even better, the mountains were finally attainable. The creatures stopped of their own accord and seemed to beckon their riders to disembark. The Digidestined did so then watched as the creatures returned to the grassy meadow.

Though the clearing was still filled with grass, it was much shorter and easier to see through. The Chosen Children made camp and got some much needed sleep. The following morning, they awoke to a strange sight. All the grass around them was gone and they were looking at barren ground.

"I'm not the only one who remembers there being grass here yesterday, right?" T.K. questioned.

"You're not imagining things, bro. There was grass here just yesterday," Matt replied.

"You guys won't believe what we found," Kari and Yolie stated. They led the others over to their find.

In the middle of the clearing, now devoid of grass, lay a giant cookie. A note was attached to it.

"Eat me," Davis read from the note.

"Since when did we enter Wonderland?" Mimi questioned.

"Well, if this is supposed to be like Wonderland then eating this should make us grow," Yolie stated.

"True, but didn't Alice grow 20 feet tall when she ate hers?" Izzy reasoned.

"So, we either eat this and run the risk of becoming giants or we leave it alone and stay the same size we are which takes forever to get anywhere," Joe explained.

"Well when you put it like that, it seems our only option is to eat the cookie," Kari said.

"Wait a minute guys. What if the cookie makes us shrink even more?" Davis asked.

"Now that's just stupid," Mimi retorted. "Who in their right mind would want to shrink us down to nothing?"

"She's got a point. I say we eat the cookie and even if we do become giants, I believe that something near the mountains will help us return to our normal size," Matt declared.

On that note, everyone surrounded the cookie and made sure to only take one bite just on case it did make them grow really tall. The strange thing was, after everyone had taken a bite, nothing happened. So everyone repeated the process, but still nothing happened. They were so convinced that this would work, they didn't realize they had eaten the entire cookie until it was all gone. Thoroughly stuffed and completely disappointed, the Digidestined and their few Digimon slumped to the ground. No one had any ideas as to what they should do next. All they knew was once again this crazy world had defeated them.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew past them followed by another and another until what appeared to be an all out wind storm raged around the group. As they sat there, being hounded by the wind, the Digidestined and their Digimon noticed the things flying by them in the wind. Things from blades of grass to large insects. The strange thing was none of them were being picked up by the wind while objects bigger and heavier than them were being blown away as though they weighed nothing at all.

"Well this is a twist I wasn't expecting," Sora stated.

"We eat a cookie expecting to grow and instead survive a wind storm. Who knew?" Cody agreed.

As they continued to endure the storm, a sudden thought occurred to them. Who was helping them? Was it someone who genuinely wanted to see them succeed or was someone trying to gain their trust before they sprung the trap?

Eventually the winds died down and some order was restored to the clearing. The sun was beginning to set so, the Digidestined and their Digimon moved towards the edge of the clearing and made camp in a more protected area. They were a little edgy as they settled into their usual routine. Before long, frayed nerves gave way to peaceful dreams.

Dawn broke beautifully over the horizon. One by one the chosen children and their rescued Digimon stirred. T.K. climbed the nearest sturdy object to get their bearings before they set out. T.K.'s report was interesting to say the least.

"Best I can tell the mountains are still pretty far off. It will take some time to get there. The interesting part is it seems the wind blew a good portion of grass away. I counted at least a dozen clearings, like this one here, which were not there before. I think if we move from clearing to clearing we can make better time to the mountains and perhaps we won't be so discouraged along the way," T.K. explained.

Everyone seemed to agree with his idea and they were soon on their way. It was almost dark by the time they reached the next clearing. Once they arrived, they noticed several bottles sitting on the ground. There was a bottle for each of them and they all had a tag which read, _Drink Me_.

"You guys still positive we aren't in Wonderland?" Mimi asked.

"We would have seen a white rabbit by now," Yolie stated.

"So, do we trust these like we did the cookie?" Tai inquired.

"It's logical to assume that if eating the cookie saved us from a wind storm than these bottles, full of whatever liquid, should protect us in the same manner. At the very least, it may restore our heights to normal," Izzy reasoned.

Sensing his logic was sound, the Digidestined and the Digimon they had with them, each took a bottle and drank the contents. Just like the cookie, nothing seemed to happen. They eventually made camp and fell asleep.

Morning dawned bright and early. One by one, the Chosen Children and their Digimon awoke to greet the day. As sleep slowly faded away, they began to notice something different. The mountains seemed a lot closer to them and they were no longer surrounded by grass. This revelation was not lost on them and they were very excited. However, their joy was replaced by mild caution. Between them and the mountains was a rather large table with enough chairs around it for everyone. Their stomachs leading the way, they made their way over to the table.

Everyone took a seat as they noticed a mismatched tea set and several plates set up in the middle of the table. They took note that the teapot was missing as well as something to eat. Without warning, a creature fell out of the sky with a rather large cake.

"Hawkmon?" Yolie questioned, not quite believing her eyes.

The Digimon didn't respond. He seemed lost in his own little world as he moved around the table. The hawk Digimon would pick up the cake then put it down on a different part of the table, before picking it up again and placing it somewhere else. Muttering could be heard as another Digimon came into view carrying a teapot.

"Veemon?" Davis asked, just as baffled as Yolie had been. No one had seen any of the missing Digimon in a long time.

Not even hearing the comment Davis made, Veemon continued his muttering. "This is very bad. Guests arriving unexpectedly. The tables not right and they don't even have tea. You can't have a un-birthday party without tea. It's not right. It just isn't done." The blue Digimon poured tea for each person and Digimon seated at the table. The teapot didn't even look like it could hold that much tea. "Hawkmon, what are you doing?"

"Who's un-birthday is it? I can't tell. It could be his or hers or theirs, I just don't know. This is the first un-birthday party where I don't know who gets the cake!" Hawkmon cried franticly.

"Then let them all have cake," Veemon suggested.

"No, no, no, no, I can't do it that way. The Queen would have my head. This is special cake. Only special people get special cake," Hawkmon replied, getting more and more flustered.

"Fine then. Who's BIRTHDAY is it?" Veemon asked, taking charge again.

"That depends on what today's date is," Cody stated.

"Very well. Today is the 14th of September," Veemon answered.

The Digidestined looked around. None of them had a birthday today.

"In that case, it's no ones birthday today," Tai informed the Digimon.

Hawkmon nearly fainted. Veemon walked over and patted his friend on the back. "Orders are orders I guess. Everybody gets a piece of cake," Veemon stated.

Hawkmon nodded before giving a slice to every Digidestined and Digimon there. After that, Veemon and Hawkmon carried on like the Made Hatter and March Hare from Alice and Wonderland. It was east to see everyone was getting annoyed with them. Suddenly a cross between a white rabbit and a Lopmon jumped onto the table. He pulled out a beautiful gold pocket watch.

"Oh! This won't do, no I can't be late!" He exclaimed.

Hawkmon and Veemon tried to pull the Lopmon into their craziness, but he eventually broke free. He disappeared through the meadow heading towards the mountains.

"Guys, I think we should follow him," Mimi suggested. Puzzled looks were cast her way. "Seriously, we are wasting time and brain cells staying here. If we follow that Lopmon we might just find our way out."

Realizing her logic, they pried themselves from their insane Digimon and made a bee-line for the rabbit like Digimon. Though the distance seemed short, it was painfully obvious they were not making progress. Tired and hungry, the Digidestined and the Digimon they had rescued stopped to rest. They had lost the Lopmon a long time ago and didn't know what to do except head towards the mountains. A feat that now seemed impossible.

"So, if we are stuck in Wonderland, what do we do next?" Cody asked. "What part of the story is this?"

"Well, if we are stuck in the movie, like it seems, any number of things could happen," Mimi explained. "The only thing we've done is have tea with the Mad Hatter and March Hare and followed the very late White Rabbit. We still have to encounter the Cheshire Cat, the Walrus, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb, the caterpillar and the Queen of Hearts." Everyone groaned. That could literally take days. "They could always skip the minor characters and go straight to the Queen," Mimi added, trying to cheer everyone up.

It didn't really seem to work. As it was, many of the Digimon had already fallen asleep. Tai declared they spend the night and everyone agreed.

The next morning the Digidestined and Digimon woke to the sight of hedges and large bushes with roses on them. Some of the roses where white while some of them looked like they had been painted red.

"I thought it was bad before, now I'm convinced this place is off the charts when it sends us into a near literal interpretation of a movie," T.K. stated.

"I agree," Mimi added. "If they make us play croquette with flamingos, I'm hitch hiking back home."

Seeing no way around the current obstacle, the Chosen Children and their Digimon began to look around. Upon hearing voices, they made their way around the corner only to discover the croquette game Mimi was afraid of. However, they were observers this time, not the participants. In front of them was a young girl with blond hair and a blue dress with a white apron. A rather large woman with black hair and an elaborate red, white, and black dress stood in front of her. A small gold crown sat on the ebony haired woman's head.

"That's the Queen of Hearts and Alice, right?" Kari whispered to T.K. He nodded affirmative.

They watched the croquette game and followed along as Alice was led to her trial. As the trial continued, the Digidestined thought they were mere observers until Alice managed to get away. The Queen looked around the room and spotted them.

"Enemies of the Queen!" she bellowed.

From every side, cards surrounded them. The Digimon, who had already been rescued, did their best to help their partners. Nothing seemed to work, though. Just as everyone thought all hope was lost, Yolie spotted Hawkmon. She tried to call out his name, but if he heard her he showed no response.

"Loyal pets of the Queen destroy these intruders," the Queen of Hearts cooed.

Veemon could now be seen next to Hawkmon. The two digivolved, a feat no one could figure out, and turned towards the Digidestined. They powered up their attacks and at the last moment fired at the Queen of Hearts instead. The Queen screamed as she was utterly destroyed and the fabricated world disappeared. As the world faded Ex-Veemon and Aquillamon de-digivolved to Veemon and Hawkmon.

"Treat us like mindless, insane creatures, humph," Hawkmon ranted as Yolie embraced her Digimon.

Davis also greeted his Digimon in a similar fashion. Everyone was relieved to not only have two more Digimon in their ranks, but also to be free of the annoying meadow. Up ahead, the mountain range looked higher than ever and seemed to be split by a winding road.

"I think it would be smart to spend one more night in the valley and we can trek through the mountains in the morning," Tai suggested.

"I agree. The last thing we need is to try and find a place to camp in unfamiliar territory," Sora chimed in.

Everyone else agreed and camp was made at the base of the mountains. A fire was made as Hawkmon and Veemon revealed a rather large basket of food they managed to swipe before the whole Alice in Wonderland thing went up in smoke. As everyone ate and caught the two Digimon up on what they had missed, a dark figure peered around an outcropping in the mountain range.

The figure chuckled to itself. "Silly creatures, you have no idea what's in store for you. This will be your hardest leg yet and if you think getting to the White Witch will be a walk in the park, you are wrong. You have much to learn before you can defeat her. I guarantee you, Digidestined, one or more of you will die before you reach me."

Maniacal laughter echoed off the mountains. Sora heard it as it sent chills down her spine. She looked around the group. Everyone else was engrossed in conversation except Kari. Their eyes locked and Sora knew the younger girl was thinking the same thing. They were far from out of the woods yet and letting their guard down could be deadly.

Authors Note: Just thought I would update you on the progress of this story. Chapters 8, 9, and 10 have been written with 11 in the works. I will update as quickly as I can get this typed up. (Yes I hand write all my stories before typing them up on the computer) The next few chapters take a slightly darker turn as the Digidestined head towards the end of their journey and their greatest challenges. The humor may be less and less and the rating may have to go up, but I assure you it flows well. Also, my writing style has changed since I started writing this. Hopefully it won't be too noticeable and any changes shouldn't show up until around chapter 9 or 10. I'm not sure how many chapters I will have for this, but you have my guarantee I WILL finish this story. Thank you for reading and please review. I love to hear what people think of my writing, but please no flames.


	8. Do you know the meaning of FEAR?

Authors Note: Here's the next chapter as promised. Like I said, this will be the first turn towards being more serious. For some reason the story just turned out this way. It happens sometimes. I hope you enjoy and please review.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, many are extremely grateful. ;)

Chapter 8: Do you know the meaning of FEAR?

It had been several days since the Digidestined began their trek through the mountains. It was the middle of the night and Matt was on guard duty. He kept his eyes open for any subtle changes in their surroundings as he observed the group around him. He noticed Kari first. The young holder of Light was shaking, badly. Matt was convinced it wasn't entirely because she was cold. The barer of Friendship noticed his little brother had his arms around her trying desperately to comfort her_. Might as well take T.K.'s shift tonight_, Matt thought.

Matt's gaze drifted toward Sora and Tai. The two were also wrapped in each others arms and Matt couldn't deny how natural it looked. He had entertained thoughts of dating the red head but deep down he knew her heart would never belong to him. Matt smiled to himself as he noticed how tightly Yolie was clutching Hawkmon to her. Oddly, the Digimon didn't seem to mind. A half strangled scream brought his attention fully to the brunette beauty near him. She was thrashing around as though she was in some hellish nightmare. Matt quickly made his way toward her as another scream split the air. Mimi sat bolt upright as she gasped through her tears. He eyes flew open to see a concerned Matt looking at her.

Matt and Mimi's eyes locked and she realized she didn't need to say a single word. As she collapsed into his arms, she let the tears flow freely. Matt could tell how badly she was shaking and rubbed her back in an attempt to comfort her. When the tears subsided, Matt grabbed the blanket she had flung off her in the midst of her nightmare and led her back towards the rock he had been leaning against earlier. He sat down as Mimi leaned against him and Matt wrapped the blanket around them both.

"Do you want to tell me what your nightmare was about?" Matt asked as Mimi continued to shake a little.

Mimi sniffed back her tears as she looked up into Matt's blue eyes. "I don't know any other way to say this but I think your Digimon is stalking me. Every time I close my eyes I see these yellow eyes and I hear a low growling from all around me. What's worse is, if I don't wake up right away, I find myself surrounded by a pack of wolves and their leader looks just like Garurumon. I remember the first time I saw him attack an evil Digimon and I knew, right then and there, I never wanted to see that coming at me."

Matt rubbed her back again as he pondered what she had told him. Just then, a wolf's howl broke the silence. Mimi whimpered as Matt wrapped his arms tight around her. As another howl pierced the air, Matt noticed Palmon had sat down next to them. Although he was afraid of Mimi's nightmare coming to life, he knew Palmon would protect them both if needed.

Morning dawned bright and early. Here and there Digidestined and Digimon began to stir as some continued to sleep on. The smell of cooking food brought the stragglers out of their slumber. Breakfast was eaten in silence as though the odd atmosphere had stolen their desire for conversation. Once they were finished eating, everything was packed up and they began their journey for the day. By now everyone was sick of walking. It was becoming a déjà vu to their treks through the Digital World. The many miles they had logged while walking would probably make any personal trainer cry tears of happiness.

As they continued walking, the mountains on their left suddenly broke away from the path revealing how high up in the mountains they were. Yolie involuntarily shuddered as she tried not to look at how far down it was. Images of that morbid bridge came unbidden into her mind and it took all her willpower to put one foot in front of the other. Kari came up behind her and engaged the lavender haired Digidestined in conversation to keep her mind off such morbid thoughts.

As the sun began to set and one side of the path still dropping off into nothing, the Digidestined and their Digimon began to look for a place to spend the night. Their main source of light being replaced by a fairly bright moon, Joe spotted a cave carved out of the rock a little ways up the path. Not wanting to spend the night on the path, for the dangers it posed, they made their way towards the cave. The Digimon entered the cave and inspected it to make sure it was unoccupied. They returned with good news and everyone filled in.

Matt turned towards the entrance of the cave to discover Mimi standing there, not budging. As Tai got a fire going and the light spilled into the cave, Matt could clearly see the bearer of Sincerity's face. Apprehension was written all over it and Palmon seemed grateful when Matt stepped up to Mimi's side.

Mimi's eyes locked with Matt's. "I know it's empty now, but don't wolves hunt at night? And if they get full they'll come back here and find us and then we are no better off than if we had tried to keep from rolling off the cliff in the middle of the night."

Matt hated to see her like this. With tears streaming down her face and clinging to him as though her life depended on him. She was so strong and stubborn and independent. It just about broke his heart to see her this broken. He eventually coaxed her into the cave and next to the fire. A concerned Yolie appeared on the other side of Mimi and gave her a reassuring hug. As Joe and Gommamon entered with more wood for the fire, Joe leaned towards Matt and told him his shift was covered for the night. Matt returned a grateful smile to the doctor-in-training.

In the middle of the night a wolfs howl pierced the air followed by a few more. A couple of Digidestined stirred at the sound. A few seconds later and ear piercing scream split the air, fully waking everyone, everyone except Mimi that is. Matt was trying to get the brunette to wake up without any luck. She was thrashing and crying and muttering incoherent things. Suddenly Mimi's eyes shot open and she locked eyes with Matt.

Mimi's breath was coming out in short, ragged gasps, but she managed to get out one sentence. "He's…here…to…kill us…all!"

A low growl emitted from the cave entrance and Matt turned to see a pair of yellow eyes and the unmistakable form of his Digimon, Garurumon.

Matt couldn't move or even think straight. Every time he tried, nothing happened. His Digimon was stalking them. Probably had been since they entered the mountains. The last time they had seen the wolf Digimon was weeks ago when he was chasing Tai. A weird ninja from a trading card had subdued him then. Now what? Could Matt ask the other Digimon to attack their friend? Would they if he did ask?

"We only want the girl. Everyone else means nothing to us," Garurumon growled.

Matt suddenly snapped out of his daze. "Over my dead body," he stated almost as low and menacing as his Digimon had spoken.

Mimi was shocked at how Matt had spoken to his Digimon. Did she really mean that much to him?

"Why do you only want Mimi? What importance is she to you?" Sora asked, surprising everyone with her boldness.

"Bearer of Love, there are things even you could not possibly understand. My master wants us to get stronger. A tasty morsel like her can accomplish this," Garurumon explained.

Mimi could tell Matt was getting angry with his Digimon. This was turning into a bad situation all around. No matter what she did Mimi couldn't get her nerves to calm down. Her nightmares would continuously flood her mind every time she looked at Garurumon. The atmosphere was getting tense for everyone. Kari sensed the change as though someone had introduced a new smell into the air. She looked at T.K. who seemed to sense it as well.

"They're loosing hope," T.K. told Kari. He walked over to Mimi and turned her towards himself. "You have to let go of your fear Mimi. I know it's hard but it's fueling him, that's why he chose you."

Mimi's eyes widened at T.K.'s revelation. "How do I keep from seeing the nightmares, which have plagued me for so long?"

"Find some happy memory to replace them with or a happy thought," T.K. instructed.

Mimi closed her eyes as she tried to find something happy. Hawaii. She tried to put herself in paradise to no avail. It just had to work. Anything was better than dyeing at the hands of Matt's Digimon. A sudden swell of joy erupted in her before it was quickly replaced by fear again. Realization dawned on her. Mimi thought about Matt again, keeping an image of the blonde rock star in her mind. The more she looked at his face, in her mind, the more her mind began to find her happy memory. The darkness and the wolves faded away as a brightly lit concert hall with thousands of screaming fans began to take its place. Matt's image changed slightly until she saw him on stage playing with his bad just as she remembered. The first time Mimi had realized how much she had grown to like Matt was at one of his concerts. As the memory lingered, Mimi realized what T.K. was trying to tell her. Fear can be acknowledged but it should never be allowed to take hold. She would never have to fear Matt's Digimon because he would never attack her or any of them. Even under a spell, Garurumon was strong enough to resist the urge to hurt anyone.

Matt looked at Mimi's face as it became one of joy. Her eyes opened and she smiled as she looked at him. The first sincere smile Matt had seen on her face in awhile.

"It's all right Matt. Garurumon won't hurt us. He's just like the rest of our Digimon. Even under a spell, he has the strength to resist being controlled," Mimi told him.

A howl erupted from the caves entrance, causing everyone to look. In a puff of smoke the wolves, surrounding Garurumon, disappeared. Matt's Digimon shook his head as if he were trying to clear his head. There was a flash of light and Gabumon stood where Garurumon once had. His eyes looked clear and bright as he looked at his partner.

"Sorry about all that," Gabumon said as he bowed his head in shame.

"It's all right," Mimi told him as she put a hand on his shoulder. "You're not the first Digimon who has tried to kill us in this crazy world and I doubt you'll be the last."

Gabumon seemed to accept Mimi's words as he joined the others in the cave. Soon everyone had drifted back to sleep. Well everyone but Matt and Mimi.

"Do you mind if I ask what your happy memory was?" Matt questioned.

Mimi smiled. "Do you remember the first time I saw you in concert?" Matt nodded yes. "Well that's what came to my mind. It was the first time I realized just how deep you could be. I think it's the first time I truly saw your soul not the rock star façade you keep up all the time. You were sincere and I couldn't deny how wonderful it made me fell."

Mimi blushed a little as Matt took her face in his hand and guided it towards his. Their eyes locked and before Mimi knew what was happening, their lips locked in a passionate kiss. Eventually they pulled away and joined their friends in sleep. Tonight Mimi's dreams were filled of nothing but happy, wonderful dreams of new found love. It didn't matter anymore when they got back to their own world. Mimi was content to snuggle up with someone she loved who had finally decided to let the world see the real him.

If the forests, desert and every environment they had traveled through to date were annoying, this mountain trek put them all to shame. The Digidestined and their rescued Digimon had been walking through steep inclines both up and down as well as maddening winding roads that would randomly hug the rock wall with nothing but a sheer drop on the other side. If that wasn't bad enough, there was no way of telling how far they had to go.

It was midday when they decided to stop for a rest. Even though the mountains mainly consisted of rocks, the Digidestined had managed to find some food along the way. Their Digimon helped collect it whenever they could. The group was currently consuming some of the scavenged food when a cool wind began. It wasn't the first time they had encountered the wind and they knew they had two options. Hunker down against the rock wall or move quickly to look for shelter. They chose the first option and huddled together to keep warm.

Once the wind was gone, the Digidestined quickly packed up and continued on their journey. Hopefully they could find shelter before nightfall. They had been forced to sleep on the trail at least a dozen times. So far they had been lucky there were rocks on both sides of the trail. Today was not looking good for finding a cave or some other place to stay especially considering the path ahead was littered with dirt from a recent rock slide. The Digimon worked to clear the large boulders out of the way. Once they were done, the group carefully picked its way across the loose gravel.

Ken and Yolie had ended up in the back of the group behind T.K. and Kari. T.K. helped the child of Light across the gravel and eventually they made it to safety. Yolie stopped in her tracks in front of the gravel. On her right was nothing but a one way ticket to whatever awaited her in the afterlife. In front of her Ken was slowly making progress across the little obstacle. He didn't realize Yolie wasn't behind him until he had cleared the debris field. He looked behind him to see Yolie standing there just staring at what lay ahead. Hawkmon had been further ahead with some of the other Digimon. Due to the erratic winds the Digimon wouldn't have been able to fly her across anyway. Ken noticed her eyes drift towards the cliff edge and understood why she couldn't move.

"Don't think about what's to the side of you Yolie. Just put one foot in front of the other and keep your eyes forward," Ken told the violet haired girl.

Her eyes drifted towards the cliff edge again as tears started to cloud her vision. "I can't," Yolie told him. "I can't turn my mind off of that stupid bridge or the possibility I will slip and fall."

Ken knew he couldn't help her from where he was so; he carefully made his way back to where she was standing. Standing in front of her, he lifted her head until she was looking at him.

"You have beaten and faced all kinds of horrible creatures and such in the Digital World. What makes this any different? You are a lot stronger than you think," Ken reminded her.

Yolie swallowed a lump, which had started to form, as she looked into his indigo eyes. For the first time in her life, she felt like she could trust him. They had come along way since their desert confessions and Yolie believed they had gotten to know each other a lot better. Ken held out a hand to her and she latched on to it like a life line. The indigo haired young man carefully guided her across the loose gravel. They were making progress and were almost on the other side when the wind picked up.

Yolie stiffened a bit at the change in the weather and her foot slipped a little. She tried to re-gain her footing but over compensated. Ken gripped her hand tighter as she slid dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. Yolie started to panic and effortlessly made a bad situation worse. The other Digidestined realized the two were missing and retraced their steps. They arrived just in time to witness Yolie's hand break free form Kens as she slid over the cliff face. Shocked at what had just happened, the bearer of Kindness screamed Yolie's name as he scrambled towards the side of the cliff. A good six feet down, Yolie clung desperately to an outcropping.

"Yolie don't move, I swear we'll find a way to get to you," Ken told the violet haired girl.

Yolie was petrified and couldn't bring herself to respond. She just dug her fingers into the rock outcropping until they started to turn white with the effort. As tears started to trace lines down her face, the boys were making plans on how to help her. They had a rope, but in her state of panic there was no guarantee she would be able to grab on to it. It was a little risky, but they eventually agreed that Matt and Tai would lower Ken down far enough for him to grab onto Yolie and then they could pull her to safety. The Digimon wished the winds would go away so their partners wouldn't have to risk their lives.

Yolie looked up to see Ken being lowered down to her. A wave of relief washed over her until a dark shape caught the corner of her eye. She slowly turned to her left and saw a pair of red glowing eyes belonging to a dark shape of a creature. It began moving towards her using its long metal like claws to dig into the rock face. It's insectoid like wings were folded close to its body proving the point about the winds.

Realization dawned on her face as the creature moved into the light, its lean green body becoming visible before her eyes. Yolie knew exactly what this creature was and she was certain she would die before Ken even got to her. All breath was taken from her and she couldn't utter a single word. The others all noticed the creature as well and a new sense of urgency filled Ken. Everyone watched helplessly as the creature and Ken closed in on Yolie. It was a close race to see who would reach the violet haired Digidestined first.

Kari saw it before anyone else. There was blood on one of the creature's hands covering several claws. He had recently killed and wanted more. Whoever was controlling it didn't care about necessity; they wanted as much blood spilled as possible. This person was taking their beloved Digimon and using their protective nature to become cold blooded killers. There was also a method to the sequence in which they had recovered their Digimon. The more deadly, easier to control Digimon, were saved for last while the harder to control, more gentle Digimon were rescued first.

Kari was as certain now as she had been when the Fire Banshee had tested them in the forest, T.K. and her Digimon would be the last ones rescued. Due to the fact it was near impossible to corrupt angels; their rescue would test them all. Kari was woken from her thoughts by the light glinting off a metallic clawed appendage poised above Yolie's head. The bearer of Love and Sincerity had her eyes tightly shut expecting the worst.

As the clawed appendage began to arc towards Yolie Kari shouted. "Stop!" The creature did stop and growled as he locked eyes with the child of Light. Kari summoned her courage and spoke again. "You have killed and shed enough blood since you entered this world. You were never created for evil and should never be asked to do its bidding. Your true master would never want to see you like this. You are a disgrace to your kind like this!"

A soft glow began to surround Kari as thought she was warring with darkness itself. T.K. put a hand on Kari's shoulder giving her the moral support she needed. Ken felt the light and with a surge of hope, his hand latched onto Yolie. She looked up and smiled at him as he slowly pulled her up. The creature noticed Yolie moving away from it and made a move to re-capture its prey.

"Don't even think about it," Kari once again scolded. "If you kill a Digidestined you can never be saved. You will forever be trapped in this evil form of your former glory. You will never see your partner again. You will only be capable of killing for as long as you live."

By now Ken, Tai, and Matt had managed to get Yolie up the cliff face. They were not out of danger yet and quickly moved by their Digimon and the rest of the group. Ken looked at the creature, which had made it up the cliff face. It stood facing them and Ken's heart sunk. For the first time he got a good look at this creature and realized how close Yolie had come to dying at the hands of his Digimon. Déjà vu all over again, Ken thought.

"Why are you doing this Stingmon?" Ken asked his Digimon. "I thought we had an understanding about corrupted Digimon."

Stingmon just looked at Ken. He blinked a couple of times before his eyes returned to normal. A glow surrounded him as Stingmon was replaced with Wormmon. The caterpillar-like creature apologized to Ken and Yolie who immediately forgave him. Ken gave his Digimon a hug before they continued on their way. Wormmon explained to them the person controlling him and Gabumon had specifically told them to target the girls.

With Tentomon, Angewomon and Angemon to rescue, the Digidestined were on high alert. Eventually they found an abandoned cave and with all the drama going on lately, decided to take a few days and just rest. It was a much smarter plan than to barrel head long into danger frazzled and exhausted.

Ken's mind wandered as he stared at the fire. Some nights he hated the night watch. Tonight was one of those nights. You are all alone with no one to talk to or distract you from your thoughts. Tonight his mind wandered back to the cliff and what had transpired a few days ago. He couldn't deny that Yolie had grown up over the years. She was still headstrong and a bit quick to act, but at the same time he noticed how much she had mellowed out.

Over the course of their journey through this strange world, Ken had begun to see a side to Yolie she didn't like to show. She was just like everyone else, scared and vulnerable. There was something else Ken noticed she liked to hide. Something he'd been noticing a lot lately. Yolie felt alone. Even amongst her friends, Yolie felt left out and unwanted. Ken had observed many times when Yolie would just go off alone as though she didn't know how to join into a conversation anymore. If Ken thought really hard, he could remember other times Yolie had done this. Even before they had entered this crazy world.

Ken's gaze drifted over to where the lavender haired girl slept. An arm was draped over her Digimon and her ruby red eyes seemed to just stare off into space. Wait a minute, Yolie was awake!? Ken's eyes locked with hers.

"Can't sleep?" Ken quietly questioned.

Yolie slowly sat up as her gaze drifted downward. "No," she responded, so softly Ken barely heard it.

"Do you want to tell me what's bugging you?" Ken asked in an attempt to snap her out of her daze.

Yolie got up and walked over to the fire, sitting next to Ken. She hugged her legs to her chest as she tried to gather her thoughts. Ken waited patiently for her to start. He stirred the fire as several minutes passed.

"I sometimes wonder if the Digital World knew what it was doing when it gave me the crest of Love," Yolie started. She spoke softly but loud enough so Ken could hear her.

Ken was surprised to her Yolie say this. "What are you talking about Yolie? You have such a loving nature towards all your friends and those you care about. To be honest I think the reason you are so quick to act is because you can't stand to see anyone you care for get hurt."

"Thanks Ken but you just don't understand," Yolie told him.

Ken watched as a single tear slid down her face before she buried her whole face in her arms. It broke the former Digimon Emperors heart to see Yolie's whole body shake with her sobs. Without thinking, Ken pulled the lavender haired girl towards him and let her cry in his arms. As her sobs died down, Yolie said something which made the whole conversation make sense.

"How long do I have to wait for the guy my heart has chosen to realize I'm the girl he's been waiting for his whole life?" Yolie asked, looking into Ken's eyes.

Ken knew right then and there why she felt so alone. Everyone seemed to have paired up or had found someone special. She felt left out because the only guy she wanted didn't want her. Seeing her pouring her heart out to him and not one of her other friends made him feel special. This also showed him she had grown. He'd begun to believe her crush had bloomed into full love and she was petrified he would still reject her so she told him it was still a crush to see how he would react.

"Yolie, who has your heart chosen?" Ken inquired, waiting with baited breath for her answer to confirm his suspicion.

Yolie continued to look into his eyes. "My heart wants someone I hope will someday see me as anything but a stupid little boy crazy girl." She paused as she gathered her courage for her next statement. "Ken, my heart wants you."

The two continued to stare at each other as Ken's mind processed what was going on. Then something clicked and before he could stop himself, Ken leaned forward and kissed Yolie. The shock quickly wore off as the lavender haired girl kissed back with all the passion she possessed.

The Digidestined and their Digimon continued their trek through the mountains. Though there was plenty to fear, they knew as long as they worked together everything would be all right. Tentomon still needed to be found and the angel Digimon were most likely being held captive by the ruler of this world. The chances they had been corrupted, like the other Digimon, was unlikely.

As the Digidestined continued to walk, they soon left the edge of the cliff. The path began winding closer to the heart of the mountain range. After eating nothing but berries everyone wanted a home cooked meal. Two days later, they reached the summit of the mountains. In front of them stood Kabuterrimon, waiting like a troll at a bridge.

"What do you want?" Izzy demanded, confronting his Digimon with courage he didn't know he had.

"Your most prized possession will do," Kabuterrimon stated.

"Why do you want it?" Tai inquired.

"The White Witch and the Evil Wizard of this world demand it. The weaker you are when you arrive, the better," Kabuterrimon explained.

Lightning flashed ominously as everyone decided what to do.

"Ah, Kabuterrimon you ask too much. You assume they actually have such a possession with them. Your masters are stupid." A male voice stated as a figure appeared from behind Kabuterrimon.

"Ray!?" Mimi identified. "What are you doing here?"

"Actually I live here. I've always lived near the White Witch. Ever since I learned who she was and what her goals in life were, I made it mine to keep an eye on her. I usually keep wary travelers from easily falling into her grasp," Ray explained.

All of the Digidestined had been wondering what had happened to him after he disappeared in the Fire Banshees castle.

"Any ideas on what we do about Kabuterrimon?" Cody asked.

"Well he is under a spell so, breaking it seems priority. You should probably weaken him so he is easy to turn. Let's see…his main attack deals with lightning so you need a water creature to weaken him. I believe you are up again Gommamon," Ray deduced.

Gommamon stepped forward and with Joe's help digivolved to Tsudamon. He used his Bulpine Hammer attack to drench the electricity Digimon. Steam covered the area and when it cleared, Tentomon lay at their feet. Izzy cautiously approached his Digimon. As the computer genius of the group placed a hand on Tentomon, the Digimon stirred and looked his partner in the eyes.

"Thanks," Tentomon managed to say.

"Now that this is a happy reunion again, how do you guys feel about letting me give you a home cooked meal?" Ray inquired.

"I think that would be fine," Tai told him.

"Great! My place is this way," Ray stated as he led them off the main path and down a narrow winding one.

The trip to Ray's place didn't take long and everyone was impressed with the size of his house. It was literally built into the side of the mountain. The Digidestined took seats at a rather large table with their Digimon seated at a smaller table nearby. A hot stew was served and as they ate they took turns filling Ray in on what had happened since they last saw him.

"Seems like you guys have been through a lot. I knew this place was huge but I had no idea there was an ocean here. It seems like you have rescued all the little creatures," Ray stated. He noticed the sad looks on Kari and T.K.'s faces. "Looks like a couple are still missing. I bet those angels belong to you."

"You've seen them?" Kari questioned.

"Let's see, the last time I saw them they were being held by the White Witch. She'd turned them to stone, I think, because I saw two angel statues on either side of the door to her castle. It could very well be a trick and the main evil dude has them. Either way it looks like you are headed to the witches' castle."

"Any advice for dealing with her?" Sora asked.

"Don't let your guard down, but more importantly don't make her mad. She has a wicked sense of humor and it is very easy to end up in a situation where you could loose a member of your group," Ray explained. "I know your ocean adventure was very similar but this is completely different. She knows everything about you and will stop at nothing to make you suffer. Outsmarting her is not easy, but it can be done."

The Digidestined and their Digimon digested Ray's words as they finished their meal. Afterwards, Ray took them on a tour of his house and insisted they spend the night. Tomorrow he would show them a quicker way to the White Witch. As everyone settled in for the night, Ray pulled Tai aside. The leader of the Digidestined was led to the topmost room in the house where an observation deck had been constructed. From this vantage, the grayish white spires of a foreboding castle loomed.

"Impressive huh," Ray commented. Tai could only nod in agreement as he looked at the distant structure. "I sense you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders so, let me help ease the burden a little. I did not want to freak out the whole group so, I didn't mention this earlier. The minute you enter that castle all bets are off. As crazy and twisted as this world has been to you, it will soon become cruel and evil. This is no game, no walk in the woods. Someone may very well never leave this world."

Tai digested everything Ray had told him. How was this supposed to lighten his burden? He looked at Ray, a young man like himself, and found himself looking to him like he would Gennai or some mentor.

Ray noticed the look and spoke again. "As hard as this information is to swallow, all you have to do when you enter the witch's castle is remember two things. One, never loose sight of your inner strength and two, if you have to make a heart wrenching decision don't let your head get in the way." Ray noticed the confusion at his last statement. "Look, you are different from all but three other people here. You have two people you look after. So ponder this, which of the two has no one else who will look after her? Who would cause you the most pain if you lost them forever? Answer these questions before you enter the witch's castle. Keep these two things in mind. This is all you need to succeed. Let the younger ones make their own decisions and mistakes as well. I know you are all together, but they have a leader and have worked well together. Let them be their own group every once in awhile. You might just be surprised at what happens."

A few minutes later, Ray led Tai back to the sleeping quarters where they parted ways. Tai peeked in on his sister only to find she wasn't there. He smiled to himself as he realized she had gone to find T.K. just like she had every night for a long time since entering this world. She was growing up and Tai knew Ray was right. He had to let her go. It was T.K.'s job to take care of her now. He continued down the hall to his own room. He had barely gotten in the door when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind. He smiled as he reached up to clasp her hands and turn her around so he could look at her.

Tai took one look at his best friend and knew everything going through her mind. She was so strong yet her heart had a way of manifesting the care and concern she had for others into something else entirely. Before he had even realized it, Sora had managed to wrap her arms around him again and burry her face in his chest. Instinctively Tai wrapped his arms around her and did his best to comfort her.

"Tai, what happens if we loose someone for real this time? What if she's so strong we can't defeat her? What about Gennai, we still have to rescue him," Sora questioned, her words half muffled but still understandable to Tai.

"We will take on thing at a time and deal with what happens when it happens. We can't change anything by obsessing over what hasn't happened yet," Tai explained.

"Tai, if something happens to me I don't want you to jeopardize anything for me. I'm not worth loosing a whole battle over or even your sister so, just let me be the one who doesn't come back," Sora stated.

This was one of the reasons Tai knew he had fallen in love with this girl. Strong yet gentle. He pulled away and lifted Sora's chin so she would meet his gaze.

"Sora, I want you to listen very carefully. We are all getting out of this. I don't care what Ray says, we've been in worse situations before. This time will be no different. Besides, I love you too much to let anything happen to you," Tai reminded her.

Sora smiled up at him. He always seemed to know how to rescue her form her irrational thoughts and fears. Before she realized it, Tai had captured her lips in a passionate kiss which she was more than happy to return. In this moment, Sora knew she wouldn't have to face anything the witch threw at them alone.

In the observations tower, Ray smiled. He seemed to know what was going on else where in his house. He also seemed to know the White Witch was going to get back as good as she could give.

Dawn came bright and early as the Digidestined and their Digimon stirred. Ray fed them breakfast and gave them plenty of provisions to help complete their journey. Everyone knew he would not be helping them with their fight. As they left his house, the air felt heavy.

Knowing they needed to lighten the mood, the Digimon decided to re-count their adventures in the Digital World. Needless to say it had the desired affect. Ray got a good feel for who these outsiders were and the more he heard, the more he realized how well equipped fro the task ahead these kids were. He now knew why they had been chosen to set his world free from evil.

They turned a corner and a collective gasp was heard as the witch's castle became visible. The white/grey spires towered above a black landscape. The air seemed to grow colder as they got closer to the structure. At the base of the mountains Ray stopped.

"I am sorry my friends, but this is as far as I go," Ray told them. "I wish you luck, though, I think you already have that in abundance. Stay positive and upbeat like your Digimon and you won't soon fail."

Everyone thanked Ray and bid him farewell knowing they most likely wouldn't be seeing him again. One by one they stepped out onto the blackened ground, each step giving off the eerie cracking sound of breaking ice. This was going to be harder than the Fire Banshee was to defeat by far.

Authors Note: Well, I hope you enjoyed this. There is more to come with the next chapter being their first real near death experience in this world. There are at least three more chapters to go and regardless of whether or not you review I will continue this. However, review may make chapters come out faster. ;)


	9. Icy Shards of Hope

Disclaimer: I don not own Digimon. Many are very glad for this. ;)

Authors Note: Sorry this took so long to get out. I had to move _again _and life just kinda got crazy. From here on out it will get a little darker and the humor may not be as quick to surface. The main reason is the subject matter. It's hard to make life and death situations humorous. There will still be a bit of weirdness involved, I think it's unavoidable in this story. LOL. There are at least three more chapters to go and hopefully I can get to typing up the last ones much faster than this one. (crosses fingers no more drama occurs) As always please no flames. The Fire Banshee has already been defeated. ;) I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 9: Icy Shards of Hope

The distance to the castle was deceptive. With no landmarks it looked like it would be a lot closer than it was. There was no sun, just a hazy light illuminating the clouds which looked like they should unleash rain at any minute. The other thing they noticed was the closer they got the taller the castle seemed to grow.

Eventually they reached the door to the castle. On either side a stone statue, resembling Angewomon and Angemon without their helmets, rested. Angewomon had her wings folded and looked like she was in pain. Angemon had his wings outstretched and looked like he had been frozen in mid battle. Kari couldn't help but reach up and touch her digimon's hand. Ice claimed her senses as she quickly withdrew her hand. T.K. had done the same thing and was trying to bring warmth back into his hand just like Kari was. T.K. grabbed Kari's hand and only then could they find the warmth they were looking for. Tai reached up and touched the door handle. The minute his fingers touched the metal, the doors opened inward of their own accord. Only Izzy seemed to realize the direction the doors opened. Easy to get in, hard to get out, he thought. As the doors shut behind them the sound echoed through the place. Small lights danced in random places and as their eyes adjusted to the dim light, the Digidestined realized they were in a large room. Frozen candles had trapped the moonlight giving the place an eerie glow.

On the other side of the room was another door. With this being their only option, the Digidestined and their Digimon made their way towards the door. As they advanced they could hear a faint moaning sound like the ice was settling or moving. The walls seemed to move as well almost like there was something trapped behind the sheet of ice. T.K. continued to hold Kari's hand as they moved forward. Suddenly he heard Angemon's voice in his head.

"No matter what happens don't loose sight of Hope and never let it die. All is lost if you loose Hope and Light."

T.K. looked over at Kari who sensed his eyes on her and met his gaze. They shared a smile as he squeezed her hand. Kari smiled even brighter. Eventually they reached the door only to have it disappear beneath the archway. Once they were through, Cody glanced behind him and noticed the door had returned. An ominous feeling lit in him and he suddenly felt uneasy. They were being ushered towards a trap, he was certain of it.

Not far from the door, the Digimon and their partners found themselves in a long, winding hallway. After wandering through the castle for awhile they came to a fork in the road. No one had any way of knowing which was the right way. Tai remembered Ray's words and made a hard decision.

"It seems to me there is only one solution to this dilemma," Tai stated, addressing the whole group. "Davis will take his team and go one way, the rest will go the other way."

Davis was dumbstruck as he heard the words leave Tai's mouth. All this time together and he was finally getting another chance to prove himself as a leader. Quickly getting over his shock, Davis accepted Tai's instructions and chose the path on the left. As the younger Digidestined disappeared from sight, Tai saw his sister holding T.K.'s hand. It took everything in him to let them go and Tai fought the feeling he would never see them again.

Sora touched Tai's arm, bringing him out of his thoughts. She smiled up at him which he returned. Kari wasn't his only responsibility anymore. As he led the group down the right hallway he knew it was the best decision he could make and T.K. was more than capable of looking after his sister.

It didn't take long for the hallway to open up into another large room. This time there were no doors just a rather large, frozen throne. On the throne sat a beautiful yet intimidating woman. Her hair was pitch black and fell past her shoulders. Her skin was white with a grayish glow and her lips and eyes were an icy blue. She wore a grayish black dress which was strapless and pooled at her feet. On her head delicate ice crystals had been woven together much like tree branches might be. A wicked smile graced her features as she stood and approached the group.

"Welcome travelers from another world. I can only conclude from your willingness to enter my home, you either think you have the power to defeat me or are complete idiots. Assuming the first reason is why you willingly entered my trap, I'll give you my name. I am known as the Creator of Ice. In my hands it comes to life in your hands it kills you," an evil glint lit in her eyes as her smile grew wider. She had reached the group and now stood in front of Tai. "I am the Queen of this world. The Ice Queen. Any other name is given on purpose to make me mad."

If possible the air seemed to have been sucked out of the place while she had been talking. Even worse the temperature seemed to have dropped as well. For some reason Tai was mesmerized by her. He couldn't move and his mind seemed to get foggy with the cold. The Ice Queen reached a delicate hand up and touched his cheek. All of his blood seemed to freeze as what little warmth he had left began to leave him.

"I think I was wrong. You are all too stupid to realize the trap I laid. Even now your companions are discovering how two angels could be completely frozen without a fight," the Ice Queen continued. She spoke into Tai's ear. "If their humans die, they die." She studied his reaction. Satisfied with his shock and helplessness she spoke again. "As shameful as this would be, I wonder what would happen if the heart of your world is frozen forever, never to beat again."

Tai's eyes went wide in shock as he spun around. His breath caught in his throat as he realized he was alone in the room. He wanted to berate himself for allowing this to happen, but quickly realized it wasn't his fault.

"I'll play a little game with you, pathetic little leader. Search my castle high and low for your companions. If you can free them from their icy tombs I'll give you a chance to see the one who means the most to you. You may comfort her as the ice slowly consumes her beating heart!"

As Tai turned and left the throne room he could hear her evil laughter echo off the walls. You're wrong, he thought. I won't watch her die, I'll save her. Right before we destroy you, the frozen witch of this world.

Tai found the path he had sent Davis down. It was full of twists and turns and here and there Tai found piles of broken ice. To him it looked like someone had broken free of an icy prison. He rounded a corner and nearly collided with Davis.

"Mind telling me what's going on here?" Davis asked.

Tai caught his breath before telling him everything about the Ice Queen.

"Well that explains why everyone started to freeze in place," Davis told Tai.

Tai looked around and realized Davis wasn't alone. Cody and Ken could be seen beyond Davis. Davis could almost read Tai's mind as he urged the leader to follow them as they continued down the path. Davis explained about Cody and Ken being frozen but by finding a way to activate their crests he was able to free them. As they continued through the winding passages they eventually came across the missing Digimon. Their Digidestined was able to free them by simply touching the ice surrounding them.

After freeing the Digimon, they continued on their search. Matt was found next followed by Yolie and Mimi. They continued along until they found Izzy. Eventually they came across Joe, T.K. and the missing Digimon. Kari was nowhere to be found, though they did find Biyomon. Tai wasn't sure if she could be freed but figured he'd try and see if the love he held for Sora was enough to free her partner. To his surprise it worked.

Everyone made their way back to the throne room. Tai knew what was at stake and told everyone to stay back and keep to the shadows. The leader was convinced this witch had both Sora and Kari as her prisoners. T.K. was instructed to wait for the right moment to try and free Kari. Tai would distract the witch will T.K. slipped in. Once the last two were freed everyone would come together and attack the witch.

Tai stepped into the throne room. He looked around only to realize he was alone. The Ice Queen was no where to be seen and much to his dismay neither Sora nor his sister were there either.

"What's the matter little leader? Lost something?" the Ice Queen questioned as she smiled mischievously from behind him.

"I'll admit you are too strong for me," Tai began, playing with her ego. "No matter how hard I look I can't find two of my teammates."

The witches smile grew. "Of course you couldn't. I hid them from you in a place I knew you would never look."

She led him behind her throne as she pushed a button on the wall. Two delicate ice sculptures floated down from the ceiling in front of the throne. The witch took Tai's hand and led him in front of the two.

"They were real easy to freeze," the Ice Queen boasted. "Light loves to dance with the ice and Love never saw it coming. Don't they look just beautiful? I made sure the ice was clear and sparkled just for you. It's the best ice I can create, crystal clear, really strong and absolutely perfect."

Tai wasn't sure what to say. To him these looked like beautifully carved ice sculptures not his best friend and sister frozen in ice. The witch noticed his confusion and her smile grew even more.

"This is why it is my favorite ice to use on intruders. I'm not vain, I enjoy showing off beauty in my own way. Which one do you like the most? I worked especially hard on the red head for you. She looked so cold and scared as the ice consumed her. I promised her I wouldn't let her die. She didn't believe me. She kept protesting when I froze her. It was a shame, she would have looked even better with a smile on her face."

Tai was convinced this witch was really twisted. These sculptures were clear with no feeling that a person ever resided in their icy depths. These were not the sculptures he had seen at the entrance to the castle nor were they anything like what his friends looked like frozen in ice. He remembered her words about having him watch Sora die in front of him. If this was her, it was too late for Sora to be saved. A glint of light to his left caught the corner of his eye. He turned his gaze ever so slightly to see what he hadn't before. Two frozen statues in alcoves against the wall.

Tai returned his gaze to the statues in front of him and placed a hand on the side of each statues face. The witch hissed as though she hadn't wanted him to touch it. Cold and wet was all Tai felt. No life or anything inside the statue.

"I have to admit these are beautiful works of art, but they are not my sister or my friend," Tai stated.

The witch was enraged. She backhanded the statues, smashing them to pieces.

"I was going to let you free both of the people most precious to you, now you will have to choose. Your sister or the red head," the Ice Queen told him.

Tai already knew his answer. "Sora." As the words left his mouth he saw T.K. slipping silently towards the statues.

"Fine!" the Ice Queen bellowed. She used her magic to bring Sora's statue in front of Tai. "I have to warn you, stupid leader; it will not be easy to free her. You see, if the ice stops her heart she will die."

Tai watched in horror as the witch took a long, pointed piece of grayish white ice and plunged it through Sora's heart.

"If the ice in her heart melts before she is freed, she is dead," the Ice Queen explained with a wicked smile on her face.

Tai looked at the statue in front of him. It was just like the ones of Angemon and Angewomon. The ice was gray, like stone, but cold with a wet sheen to it. Sora's face seemed frozen in a mixture of fear and cold, just like the witch had said. Tai reached up and placed a hand on the side of Sora's face. He saw the ice shrink a little and to his dismay Sora's face seemed to contort in pain.

On the other side of the room, T.K. was facing a similar dilemma. The warmth he felt when he touched Kari's statue was fading fast. He tried to think what to do when it hit him. The one thing her crest couldn't resist. He whispered in her ear, "Light never allows the darkness to win. It doesn't know how to give up." The ice around Kari began to glow white. On her forehead appeared the crest of Light. T.K. watched as water began to pool around the statue. In a few minutes, the light faded and Kari stood, smiling in front of T.K. She threw her arms around him. T.K. knew right then and there he had indeed fallen in love with his best friend.

The Digidestined were watching from the shadows and noticed the glow coming from Kari on the other side of the room. As Matt watched he saw T.K.'s crest began to glow. How the witch hadn't noticed this, he didn't know. Eventually the glow faded and the two silently slipped back to the main group.

The Ice Queen was positively giddy with the position this stupid little human was in. She couldn't wait to see how he reacted when he failed. She could almost see the abject horror on his face as he held her and watched her heart slowly stop. It was too delicious for words.

Tai looked into Sora's eyes. He knew time was running out but he had to try something. He needed to activate her crest so he leaned towards her ear and whispered I love you. In this moment her eyes seemed to spring open, but nothing else seemed to happen. The ice shard in her heart was almost gone. He wanted to panic but he forced himself to remember his crest. Then he remembered, Love was an emotion often triggered by a physical act. He closed his eyes and pressed his lips against Sora's icy ones.

As the ice shard disappeared into Sora's heart, her heart began to glow red. The glow continued to spread throughout her body until it grew so bright it seemed to consume the whole room. When the glow faded, everyone could see Sora had returned Tai's kiss.

The Ice Queen shrieked. She glanced to the wall to discover her other statue was gone as well. "You shall perish for this!"

The walls and ceiling began to grow as more ice layered on top of them. The rest of the Digidestined and Digimon managed to enter the throne room before the door way was blocked with a thick wall of ice. The room quickly took on the look of an ice cave.

An evil look flashed in the Ice Queen's eyes as giant icicles began to grow down from the ceiling like stalactites. The temperature also began to drop and everyone found themselves getting tired and cold. They could hardly think straight. The witch knew this was right where she wanted them.

Sora reached over and grasped Tai's hand tightly. A warmth spread through him he which he couldn't explain. He looked over at Sora who seemed as shocked by the heat as he was. They looked around the room and discovered everyone was freezing. If something wasn't done soon, who knew what would happen.

The Ice Queen was enjoying this very much. Her smile faltered, however, when she saw Tai and Sora. Not only were their hands intertwined, they didn't seem effected by the cold. She walked over to the wall and hit it with her fist causing some of the icicles to fall from the ceiling. The Digidestined managed to dodge them; though Tai was beginning to worry they couldn't keep this up forever.

The witch hit her fist on the wall again and two rather large icicles fell from the ceiling heading right for Tai and Sora. They pushed each other out of the way but still managed to get cut by the ice. Sora had a large cut on her leg and Tai had a few on his arm. The witch was angry now. She placed both hands above the ice on the floor and to everyone's amazement the ice began to flow like a river getting thicker and harder. It started to cover the Digidestined and their Digimon once again. Tai wouldn't allow that.

Whether it was pure genius or completely foolish, Tai charged at the witch in an attempt to get her to stop. Before Tai had reached the witch, Augumon had digivolved to Greymon. He launched his Nova Blast at the witch, which she dodged. However, it hit the walls of the room melting through every layer of ice until stone could be seen underneath.

"That's it!" Sora exclaimed. "We need another fire Digimon."

Before anyone could react, the Ice Queen threw Tai against the wall. He slumped to the floor and didn't move as Sora screamed out his name and tried to get to him on her injured leg. Though concerned, the others were fascinated by the fact Greymon didn't de-digivolve instead he digivolved all the way to War Greymon. Biyomon also felt herself digivolving. She digivolved all the way to her mega ultimate form of Phoenixmon.

The two high ranking Digimon looked at each other before unleashing their attacks. War Greymon threw his Terra Force at one of the walls while Phoenixmon sent flames racing around the floor. Tai slowly opened his eyes to see a very concerned Sora and Kari looking at him. He tried to move but Joe wouldn't let him stating he may have a mild concussion and needed to stay put. It was then the room started to spin and Tai was very grateful for Joe.

The Ice Queen saw all of her beautiful ice melting and shrieked. The fury was evident in her eyes as she scanned the room. An evil smile returned to her face as she saw Tai against the wall with a couple of people attending to him. The other creatures didn't pose a threat to her and she still had her trump card. Maybe they could melt her ice but she had a consolation prize.

"Fine! You want to melt my ice, go right ahead. In the end you will still loose, because I have two of your creatures frozen forever. Over time my ice becomes stone and the very breath is stolen from them, their skin, bones, blood, everything becomes cold hard stone. Angels die in this world everyday, little pests from another world. Too bad someone didn't bother to tell you not to bring them," The Ice Queen gloated. Her smile was bigger than ever as she watched for their reaction to her news.

Kari gasped at the news. She had almost forgotten about her Digimon. She looked over at T.K. who seemed to be thinking the same thing. Kari walked over to her best friend and put a hand on his arm.

"T.K., it's not true is it? We won't really lose them will we?" Kari asked.

"Not a chance Kari. We haven't lost hope yet and even in the depths of this dark and evil place light finds a way in," T.K. explained.

Kari smiled up at him as the Queen began to laugh. The Digidestined and their Digimon looked over at her and realized she was amused by T.K.'s statement. At this point, everyone was completely annoyed with her. Matt took over for Tai and told everyone to have their Digimon digivolve. Once they were done, they began to attack the Ice Queen. T.K. and Kari stood off to the side. They wondered if they should go back to the main entrance of this place and try to free their Digimon.

It didn't take long for most of the Digimon to revert back to their in-training forms. It seemed hopeless. What's worse the light in the room was fading. Kari closed her eyes. She could just barely make out some light. She was about to exploit it when the Ice Queen began to boast.

"Puny little brats! You really think you have the power to defeat me? Your little creatures can't even stay powerful enough to cause any damage to me. Pathetic! I shall enjoy turning you all into ice statues!" The Ice Queen began to laugh.

Kari grabbed a broken piece of ice and made her way towards a small pin hole of light. While the others distracted the witch she began to chip away the ice around the light. It seemed to be taking forever but eventually the hole began to widen. Kari hit a weak spot and the wall of ice crashed down around her. The Ice Queen shrieked as the light began to pour in. The light was no longer filtered gray light, but pure white/yellow light.

"I will kill you where you stand!" The Ice Queen screamed.

Kari felt the ice creeping up on her again but she stood firm.

"Try your hardest witch. You can never destroy the light or those who vow to protect it," Kari told her.

"Wrong! That little angel of yours is dead along with her companion," The witch declared.

"You're wrong. I can feel her in my heart. Her light is strong and she will not let you win!" Kari returned.

The Ice Queen began to laugh again. As the ice continued to consumer her once more, Kari could hear T.K. telling everyone not to give up. We still have hope, Kari told herself. She closed her eyes and focused on the light. Somewhere in the background she could hear the sounds of a battle, but in her mind all she saw was Angewomon. She saw the light, bright and beautiful bathing not just her Digimon but T.K.'s as well. As the light got brighter she saw both Digimon began to glow pink and yellow.

The sharp pain of her heart being constricted brought her back to the fight going on around her. She gritted her teeth against the pain trying hard not to black out. In the midst of her pain she heard a familiar voice. She willed her eyes to open and they did just in time to see a "Celestial Arrow" pierce the witch and send her flying against the wall.

The pain immediately subsided and a warm hand on her shoulder seemed to cause the ice to melt around Kari. She looked up to see Angewomon smiling down at her. Kari couldn't help it giving her Digimon a big hug. She then turned her attention towards the battle in time to see Angemon burst through the wall and deliver his "Hand of Fate" to the witch. She struggled to stand from this attack and the Digimon used this time to recover and digivolve to their highest level. The witch got to her feet in time to see all 12 attacks heading right for her. She screamed as she was completely destroyed.

As the Digidestined and their Digimon began to celebrate, the castle began to move and groan before it started to melt. As the ice turned into a river, the Digimon grabbed their partners and took them out of that place via the large hole in the wall. Once outside everyone was surprised to see how much the scenery had changed.

The light shone down on everything, no longer hidden in the clouds. The ice they had walked on had melted and they realized the Ice Queen had built her castle on a large frozen lake. They were making their way towards the edge of the lake when they heard Ray yell to them.

"Keep the sun to your left in the morning and to your right in the evening. This is how you will know you are going the right way."

They thanked him then noticed a nice shady area to rest and recover from the battle. Tomorrow they would begin their journey to the evil wizard's fortress.

Once the sun was up and breakfast had been consumed, everyone got their bearings and began the long trek to the Evil Wizards dwelling. Somewhere inside was Gennai and if they could defeat the wizard, they should be on their way home. As crazy as this world had been, the Digidestined and their Digimon realized they should be grateful for the way it kept them from dwelling on the negative. Right now they needed a crazy distraction.

They had no way of knowing what to expect once they arrived at the Wizards place. The Digidestined imagined it would be at least as difficult as the Ice Queen was to defeat. Whatever they encountered they had two priorities. Rescue Gennai and defeat the Wizard so they could all go home.

The worst part about this journey to the Wizards castle was the silence. It was eerily quiet and no one could think of anything to say to break the silence. Around them the scenery would randomly change from forests to plains and everything in between.

"Can you guys believe our adventure is almost over?" Yolie asked, finding something to say.

"I wonder how time passes in this place?" Joe mussed. "It seems like we've been here for several months but has it been the same in our world?"

"It will probably be as though no time has passed or at least I hope so. The last thing we need is to worry our parents all over again," Izzy stated.

"Whatever happens it would be nice if we came across a lake or something," Cody added. "I don't know about the rest of you but I could use a bath."

Everyone agreed with the sentiment. They had been in this place for a long time and only had one or two opportunities to get cleaned. As the sun started to set, they made camp and settled in for the night. It was hard not to pair up so, those who had discovered their love did so. The others didn't mind. Well, Davis minded a little but it couldn't be helped. Kari had chosen T.K. and he had to accept this fact.

As the sun set, the Digidestined were unaware they were being watched. In fact they had been observed the whole time they were in this strange new place. The moon rose high as the shadows stirred. Information was being gathered for their master. Information which could be used against these outsiders in a fight. At this point it was useless to delay their progress. The master of this world had been waiting for them and he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

The Digidestined woke the next morning to a rain storm. Ironically it seemed as though their wish for a bath had been granted. They quickly packed up everything to keep it dry and had something to eat. The angel Digimon were able to determine the position of the sun, even through the thick clouds. Kari was very glad they had rescued them.

As they continued on their way, the storm seemed to get more intense as though someone didn't want them to reach their destination. The Digidestined and their Digimon trudged on anyway. At points the rain had created mud puddles so deep the Digidestined had to allow their Digimon to help them get through them. Their spirits were beginning to dampen and T.K. could feel it. It was like a dark cloud had settled over everyone and no one had any desire to talk or do anything but keep trudging forward. T.K. knew if they kept this up they would be in no shape to fight their next battle. Maybe this is what the Evil Wizard had wanted all along.

They were crossing another puddle, which was knee deep, when Cody slipped. He managed to get back on his feet but had gotten some of the mud in his mouth in the process. He started spitting it out when he made an interesting discovery.

"Guys, I think this mud is melted chocolate," Cody informed them.

Everyone stopped to look at him. They thought he'd lost his mind, well all but Davis who had just put a handful of the "mud" in his mouth.

"Oh my gosh! Cody's right. It is chocolate," Davis exclaimed.

Soon all the Digidestined and their Digimon were digging into the chocolate mud puddle. They made sure they didn't eat too much or else they would get a serious tummy ache. They kept walking until they reached what seemed to be the end of the line. The ground in front of them ended in a giant drop off. They could see the ground far below them along with what looked like a road. The road continued forward until it was lost in the shadows. No one knew what the shadow came from.

Everyone voted to make camp for the night. In the morning they would figure out how to get down the cliff. As darkness took over, the clouds parted and for the first time in a week, the stars could be seen. It was also one of the few peaceful nights they'd had since coming to this crazy world. Cody was on first watch and as everyone slept he began to reminisce about the Digital World. For some reason this night reminded him of one of the nights he'd camped out in the Digital World. It was so calm and peaceful, the young Digidestined had a hard time remembering they had a tough fight ahead of them. All he wanted at the moment was just to enjoy the scenery.

The following morning, after breakfast, Tai, Matt and T.K. examined the cliff face for any way down. It was Yolie who actually found a small pathway carved into the rock. It was very steep, but it would keep their Digimon form having to use up all if their energy in the event an enemy might be near. As they descended, most of the Digidestined kept one hand on the rock wall. Ken made sure he stayed close to Yolie. After her last experience on a cliff, he wasn't willing to take any chances. It took them most of the day to reach the bottom. They had drifted off from the main road so, they made their way back to it and continued on their journey. They made camp just before the road disappeared into the shadows.

The next day they ventured into the shadow only to discover it was like a doorway to another part of this strange world. The road continued alongside a river which cut a path through a beautiful forested meadow. Birds could be heard and the whole place brought a welcomed peace among the group. At the moment they didn't care if they ever returned home or defeated the Evil Wizard. Eventually the road came to a crossroad with many paths branching from it. Determining which path to take wouldn't be easy, but they were determined to figure it out.

Patamon, Tentomon, Garurumon, and Hawkmon decided to each take one of the five paths and see where they ended. They could fly or run fairly fast and should be able to see where it led quickly. The fifth path led straight ahead and Biyomon decided to check that one out. She decided on a bird's eye view of it and digivolved to Birdramon. Once above the trees, she could see the five paths surprisingly well. However, they all seemed to go on forever. She flew for a little while until she realized this was not the way to figure out which path to take. She flew back to the others and told them what she had discovered. The other Digimon soon arrived and seemed to agree.

As they were discussing a plan of action a note appeared in the middle of the group. Matt picked it up and read it.

It is time to trust us now

Digi children, Digi creatures

There are five so as five you must go

Down each path a new road

Use your strengths to see you through

Tis the Wizard who is your foe

If you follow each a path

By surprise you will take him

Just as Witch and Banshee fall

So shall the wickedest of all

Sincerely,

Slaves and servants of the evil one

(or basically everyone you've met so far)

"It's nice to know you've been appreciated," Joe stated. "How do we go about dividing up?"

"We need a good strategy," Davis told them, surprising a few.

"Right," Ken agreed.

"Let's start with crests. We need to determine which ones work well together," Cody added.

"Then we figure out by personalities," Izzy chimed in.

"Maybe also which Digimon would be helpful to each group," Ken suggested.

The Digidestined decided to rest while Ken, Cody, and Izzy strategized the division of the group. It took an hour but eventually they came to a solution. Love, Sincerity, and Reliability worked well together so, Sora and Biyomon, Mimi and Patamon and Joe and Gommamon would take the first path.

Love/Sincerity and Kindness fit together nicely so, Yolie and Hawkmon with Ken and Wormmon took the second path.

Hope and Light were an obvious pairing so T.K. and Patamon with Kari and Gatomon took the third path.

Courage, Friendship, and Knowledge got along well with each other so, Tai and Augumon, Matt and Gabumon, and Izzy and Tentomon took the fourth path.

Courage/Friendship and Knowledge/Reliability worked well with each other so, Davis and Veemon with Cody and Armadillomon took the fifth and final path.

Satisfied with the groups, everyone took off down their assigned paths. They had no way of knowing where these paths led. All they could do was trust the note was indeed written by the oppressed people of this world who wanted to help them. They tried to keep in their minds the possibility these paths may lead directly to the Wizards castle. All they could do is believe they would succeed. Day eventually turned to night as each group camped on their own paths. The Digimon decided they would watch over their partners at night. Reluctantly, the Digidestined agreed. In the end it made more sense. As the flames danced around each fire and the Digidestined slept, the forest surrounding them seemed to hush as well as if waiting and watching for something to happen.

Authors Note: That's the end of chapter 9 and the beginning of the darker turn to this story. You'll understand why it goes that way in the next chapter. I wish I could have kept it lighthearted, but the wickedness of the main evil character just automatically took this story that direction. As most authors I tend to discover that my stories go wherever the auto pilot takes me. I can honestly say I never would have thought this story would take this turn when I started out but this is where it wanted to go. All I can do is enjoy the ride.


End file.
